"Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind."
Cambridge University, 1928. Virginia Woolf is ordered off the grass and refused entry to the library. Her crime? Being a woman. Following this, Woolf interrogates the crushing injustice of women living in1920’s Britain. With an incisive mix of integrity and visceral charm, Woolf forms her ideas about Shakespeare’s Sister, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte and Aphra Behn among others.
Heather Alexander brings Woolf’s iconic text to the stage. In this witty, poignant and provocative production, Alexander reminds us that the issues at the heart of A Room of One’s Own remain as relevant today as they were a hundred years ago.
Award winner, Heather Alexander, presents a unique dramatic interpretation of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One’s Own.
Fundamental ideas about gender, creativity and thwarted opportunity are interrogated as Woolf gets to grip with her ground-breaking ideas.
Highly critically acclaimed, this outstanding show provides a witty, provocative yet accessible homage to one of feminism's brightest minds.
During the performance, the audience are invited into Woolf’s study and then follow her on her journey between lecture halls, the British Museum and Oxbridge. We share Woolf’s insights, her frustrations and her biting humour as she reflects on the many barriers that women have faced and how courageously female writers have fought to be recognised.
A powerful exploration of an extraordinary woman. The text remains as relevant and as important today as it invites the audience to reflect upon what and how much has changed? All the famous passages from the essay are here: the realisation that poverty is a serious bar to women writing , the story of Shakespeare's sister, and the realisation that in fiction women must exist in relation to the world and each other, and not just as foils for men. That's the Bechdel Test, many years early.
ROOM asks the audience to embrace artistic progress and to celebrate creativity for all, regardless of gender and imposed societal constraints.
Written & performed by Heather Alexander.
Directed by Dominique Gerrard.
