A Room of One's Own

‘A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction’ says Virginia Woolf, as part of her talk given to two female colleges at the University of Cambridge in 1928. Rebecca Vaughan is Woolf, delivering a TED-talk long before they were a thing, about the challenges facing women in society – particularly creative and intellectual women, who legally still needed a man for many things now independent of gender.

Dyad Productions have a strong pedigree in presenting dramatisations on historical figures such as Elizabeth I, Jane Austen’s women and now Woolf’s famous essay/book from a hundred years ago. It’s delivered simply, as a monologue, with simple period costume, minimal props and relying instead on the strong and powerful words lifted from that famous publication.

Vaughan delivers an incredible hour, never missing a step as she inhabits Virginia and gives us the context and personal philosophy of how the world could work. It’s a dense treatise, but rarely does it do anything but hold the attention, discussing her personal experiences of being told that as a woman, she was not permitted to go into the library, and the differences between the lunches at indulgent male colleges compared to those much plainer held at female establishments.

Vaughan/Woolf argues that without the same access to education, there is no opportunity to write; she speculates that if Shakespeare had a sister (whom Woolf called Judith), then even with the same innate talent, she would never have been permitted to be as successful as William.

Vaughan brings to life the words of Woolf with passion and humour, but it’s hard to convey the full contents of her essay in just an hour, and whilst with hopeful references to what the world will be like in a hundred years (2028, three years from now), Vaughan’s positivity is not reflected by the audience realisation that we aren’t quite there yet.

An intellectual hour for fans of Virginia Woolf, expertly performed by Rebecca Vaughan.

Review by Mark Wickett

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