@ MacRobert Arts Centre, Stirling, on Sat 16 Apr 2016
Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel Mrs. Dalloway is ingeniously adapted for the stage by Elton Townend Jones, bringing all the characters in the book to life through the eyes of the main figure of Clarissa Dalloway.
Darkness, silence… then… the words “Clarissa Dalloway” fill the small, busy theatre, the light now revealing the main character. The intense voice, the well placed movements – Clarissa grabs you in an instant, captures you, doesn’t let you off again until the one-amazing-woman show finishes with the same words 90 minutes later.
The stage set consists of a small white chaise-lounge, set against a trio of white, flowing hangings that form the back of the compact stage. Clarissa’s costume, simply and appropriately, describes the period. Later, a few minimalist props will be used.
There is no hiding here, the focus entirely on the acting, the performance, supported by effective lighting, illustrated by the right sounds at the right time.
Rebecca Vaughan moves… no… races convincingly from one character of the story to the next. She is Clarissa Dalloway one moment, Septimus Smith the next, Peter Walsh after that, and so on. You believe her, you can visualise every single person. You can see, feel their emotions, understand their situations. You follow the journey breathlessly.
Clarissa Dalloway is planning a party that same evening in her mansion, in her beloved London. In doing so she takes you with her, introduces you to her past, to her past and current friends, lovers, acquaintances, her husband. They will all come to the party.
Except Septimus Smith. She does not know him. He was in the Great War. He suffers from shell-shock. He kills himself on the day of her party. It affects her deeply, makes her cry and despair about her own life. She admires, understands his action. She composes herself, and in the end she is Clarissa Dalloway, the perfect hostess of a successful party.
Vaughan conveys the suffering of Septimus’ shell-shock, culminating in suicide, perfectly – believable, tangible suicide on stage – one woman, no props, just pure expression and lights.
There is more… interwoven detail, complicated emotions brilliantly shown in every facial expression, in every movement. The speech delivered with the right amount of passion in different voices and accents, changing in accordance with the characters.
This is pure brilliant theatre.