FOR a nation that was still just over a century old at the time Daisy Miller was written, the United States had managed to establish its own class strata, with the intolerance to individuality that often goes with it.
Such is the snobbery that the heroine of Henry James's novel - adapted for the stage by Dawn Keeler - is up against.
Scarlett Johnson portrays the title character as a feisty, wilful young woman who was probably ahead of her time. Today she would be typical of many teenagers and more acceptable to society for it.
In the late 1870s, however, pushing the boundaries of social convention in the way Daisy does causes palpitations among the Americans she encounters in Europe as they successfully manage to export their narrow mindedness.
Narrative is provided by Richard Grieve, as Frederick Winterbourne, the young American writer who has lived most of his life in Europe and is beguiled by Daisy after meeting her beside Lake Geneva.
Despite his misgivings about aspects of her behaviour, he finds himself repeatedly defending her in the face of the disdain showed by the wife of the former US ambassador Mrs Walker (Shirley Anne Field) and even his own aunt, Mrs Costello (Jean Boht).
While today's teenagers believe they can have it all, it was not so in Daisy's time, as is ultimately proved.
Daisy Miller runs until this Saturday.
Review by PETER McMILLAN
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