“If I could not grasp the truth about women in the past, why bother about women in the future?” Virginia Woolf
In Sentient Theatre’s inaugural piece, we celebrate the beautiful literacy and conceptual genius of Virginia Woolf, one of the greatest writers of the 20th Century, and her classic work A Room of One’s Own.
Based on a series of lectures by Woolf in 1928 on the subject of women and fiction, this adaptation restructures the narrative to feature four performers who represent various aspects of Woolf’s mind in conversation with herself and the audience.
Director Peta Hanrahan said the work was more relevant than ever as it explores gender disparity and uses Woolf’s humour.
“I say this without reservation: this is the most important work of my life, bringing the voice of Virginia Woolf back to a contemporary audience,” she said.
“Her logic and depth of insight changed everything for me when I was a young artist and now I see around me, again, the urgent need for her words and philosophy for a new generation.”
Hanrahan said she was inspired to adapt A Room of One’s Own due to her experiences of being a woman.
“One can only truly speak to the experiences of one’s own life, and being female I have had great motivation for that anger. The rules are different for us. We are, by birth, the second sex and are treated thus by not only our male peers, fathers, brothers, bosses and professors but by the societal blueprint that they wrote,” she said.
“When we as women are told, every day of our lives, that we are irrelevant to the halls of power, that our role is to support the masculine in their dream and their endeavour by every society on the planet, this is diminishing to us; it is also used as the tool of violence against us by those that manipulate the blueprint for their own enterprise.
“A Room of One’s Own is a first step, the first step for many. It will still provoke old feelings of ‘assured understanding’ from those who have lived a whole life inside their blueprint.”
A Room of One’s Own is on Saturday, August 17 at 7.30pm. There will be pre-show entertainment. To buy your tickets, click here.
