Browsing through this season's Palace Theatre brochure, my boyfriend's eyes lit up at the sight of Miss Julie.

A reaction that was evidently shared by quite a few other people as tickets for this raunchy rendition sold so quickly that an extra night was added to the original two-performance run at the Palace Theatre's Dixon Studio.

With promotional hype promising "nudity, violence and explicit sex scenes", I expected to be surrounded by seedy characters in the audience.

In fact, there wasn't a dirty raincoat to be seen and the audience was predominately female.

In such an intimate setting as the tiny Dixon, you are unnervingly close to the action - and when action means unzipping, whipping and bodice-ripping, then this production will obviously not be to everyone's taste.

Featuring just three characters - the sleek and sexy upper-class Miss Julie, ladies-man and servant Jean, and the buxom kitchen maid Kristin (for whom the phrase hell hath no fury. . . must surely have been written), the play explores the class divide in the 1800s.

Themes of desperation, fear, instability and psychoanalysis are also touched on.

Sex plays a part, but certainly not the whole of the story.

The major sex scene was well-lit and choreographed, although still hard-hitting.

If you're expecting a grubby, gratuitous play, then you'll be dissatisfied. If however, you want to see the actors' skill (as well as their skin) then Miss Julie awaits you.

Miss Julie is at the Dixon Studio, London Road, Westcliff until Wednesday.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.