Following a sold-out premiere season, Peta Hanrahan’s stage adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s classic essay, A Room of One’s Own, returns this July to Melbourne’s fortyfivedownstairs.
Breathing new life into the history of women and literature, A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf is based on a series of lectures that gently interrogates the history of women and fiction.
This much-lauded production carries striking relevance to current conversations. Today, with campaigns such as Me Too, Time’s Up and NOW Australia, A Room of One’s Own shines a light on our history with astounding pertinence to contemporary society.
The work explores gender disparity from an historical perspective, delivering the main themes and ideas from the 1929 essay (of the same name) to present-day audiences, while keeping Woolf’s language intact, and charming humour alive.
“The novelette text of A Room of One’s Own has been delivered by Woolf as a piece of non-fiction – written fictionally,” explains Adaptor/Director Peta Hanrahan. “The audience response to our premiere season showed me that Virginia Woolf’s text is more than just still alive, the work was met with a veracious hunger.”
“My sociopolitical intention is to move forward with contemporary feminist ideals, and within that idea is to offer a different way of fighting. One of those ways is to ask men to join the conversation, not exclude them from it anymore, and that makes this show very different from other theatrical experiences on the subject.”
Sentient Theatre is a collective of contemporary theatre practitioners formed with the goal of bringing important humanitarian narratives to the stage. The return season of their sell-out production A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf breathes life, once again, into the history of women and literature.
This powerful Australian play is a challenging, provocative, and intelligent reflection on a subject no one on this planet can avoid.
“This luminous, accessible production captures the beauty of Woolf’s prose and the complexity of her ideas [and] gives her potent words vivid voice.” – The Age
Director: Peta Hanrahan Featuring: Anthea Davis, Anna Kennedy, Marissa O’Reilly, Jackson Trickett Lighting Design: Paul Lim Set Design: Dagmara Gieysztor Sound Design: David Thomson Stage and Production Management: Tennessee Mynott-Rudland Producer: Anna Kennedy
A Room of One’s Own
fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Season: 18 – 28 July 2019 (preview: 17 July)
Bookings: www.fortyfivedownstairs.com
For more information, visit: www.aroomofonesownvirginia.org for details.
Image: Marissa O’Reilly and Anna Kennedy – photo by Tommy Holt (T6 photography)