EdFringe Review: An Audience with Virginia Woolf: Writing One’s Mind

Adapting a literary giant’s inner thoughts for the stage risks a dry, academic recitation. Lucy Stevens avoids this entirely. Her solo show, An Audience with Virginia Woolf: Writing One’s Mind, takes what is essentially a nuanced literary argument and turns it into a fascinating hour of theatrical storytelling.

Directed by Fringe First winner Margarett Perry, the production takes up residence in the appropriately elegant drawing room space of the Assembly Rooms, arriving fresh from a sold-out Off-Broadway run. It offers a sharp, intelligent digest of Woolf’s life and work, driven entirely by an elegantly authoritative central performance.

Set in 1931, the script finds Woolf delivering a withering critique of early 20th-century patriarchy. Stevens dips in and out of her subject’s stream of consciousness, pulling vital fragments from The Waves, Orlando, To the Lighthouse, and her famous polemic, A Room of One’s Own. The script does not settle for easy biographical bullet points. Instead, it builds a complex, multi-layered argument regarding gender, art, and independence.

Stevens possesses quiet magnetism, critical to retaining the room’s attention. This is not a production where a viewer can afford to let their mind wander. You might pick up the thread again when the narrative shifts into its next chapter, but the text is genuinely best enjoyed by catching every single word.

“Adapting a literary giant’s inner thoughts for the stage risks a dry, academic recitation. Lucy Stevens avoids this entirely.“

Fortunately, the execution is truly excellent and accessible. Many in the audience will have no firm idea of what the real Virginia Woolf was actually like, yet the illusion holds. Think of it as a historical figure’s edition of a TED Talk.

Melancholy and pride

Stevens also proves a highly capable lieder singer. She segues into brief musical interludes throughout the hour; moments which carry real artistic power. They inject emotional weight into the room, breaking up the intellectual prose to make a more complete experience. A palpable melancholy infuses much of the story, lingering at the edges of Woolf’s reflections. Yet it never overwhelms the performance or tips into self-indulgence. Instead, Stevens balances that sadness with fierce professional pride and hope.

The character on stage emerges as stoic, sharp, and intensely observant. The core of the performance rests on Woolf’s abiding belief in the power of writing to transform thought and challenge established norms. Stevens captures the essence of an English progressive looking firmly toward the horizon. She outlines a sincere hope for a future where feminists are no longer needed, rendered entirely redundant by basic societal enlightenment. It’s a pity it feels so relevant, decades since Woolf passed away, but that hope lives on.

An Audience with Virginia Woolf strips away academic myth-making to present a working writer fighting for creative autonomy. Meticulously researched and elegantly performed, it is a highly accomplished piece of solo theatre. Stevens champions a vital voice from the past, ensuring her words strike with contemporary force.