As the fun loving, fashion-conscious midwife in the popular BBC Sunday night nuns and nurses drama Call the Midwife, Helen George was bubbly, big-hearted and top-drawer beautiful Trixie Franklin.
And then she showed another side, when she stormed her way through to the last handful of dancers in last season’s Strictly Come Dancing.
Now Helen George is coming to Milton Keynes, starring in Patrick Marber's* play After Miss Julie, at Milton Keynes Theatre from Monday (July 18).
This date is part of a short tour prior to a West End transfer, and once again, it promises to shake up your impression of Helen as an actress and performer.
Set in 1945 in an English country house, on the eve of Labour’s landslide victory at the end of the second world war, After Miss Julie is inspired by August Strindberg’s 1888 masterpiece, Miss Julie.
During a summer ball, the beautiful daughter of the peer who owns the house, wanders into the servant’s quarters.
As she flirts with her father’s handsome chauffeur, indifferent to the presence of his fiancée, what begins as game-playing ignites into passion with devastating consequences.
Helen is Miss Julie, the predatory and self-destructive Downton-esque daughter in this delivery which is directed by Anthony Banks, former associate director of the National Theatre.
The Times says it possessed a 'zinging dialogue, laced with ruthless wit and semi-repressed desire,' while the Evening Standard summed up in a mere one word: 'Scintillating,' they said.
Those of you who fancy an erotic psychological thriller based on an original 19th century example of Nordic Noir should reach for their plastic pals and then visit www.atgtickets.com/miltonkeynes to book.
*Patrick Marber’s other plays include Dealer’s Choice, which won the 1995 Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy, and the huge international hit, Closer, which won the Evening Standard award for Best Comedy, the Critics' Circle and Olivier awards for Best New Play and was made into a BAFTA Award-winning film in 2004.
