Review: Mrs Dalloway, Wilton’s Music Hall

Before the show starts, Kit Green, who has already spent some of the pre-show mingling with the audience, asks if we’ve read Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel Mrs Dalloway. As neither Woolf nor the Bloomsbury set are really my thing, I wasn’t among the many who replied in the affirmative. Even so, I was intrigued to see what Green would do with a novel often described as Woolf’s response to Ulysses, both books employing stream-of-consciousness.

On Simon Kenny‘s simple set, Green, beautifully dressed for the period as Mrs Dalloway herself, immediately breaks the fourth wall to tell us what we’re about to see and invites us to join her party as she recounts Clarissa Dalloway’s story. She begins by narrating, seemingly reading directly from the novel, while footage of London, where the tale is set, plays behind her. She then morphs into Lucy, Mrs Dalloway’s cockney maid, and that’s where things begin to get a little muddled. Lucy starts talking about a delivery rider on an electric bike and modern pharmaceuticals that Mrs Dalloway should be taking, leaving me wondering quite where – or indeed when – we were supposed to be. Later, the action pauses again as Green sits at the piano to perform a superb song about not being afraid of Virginia Woolf before seamlessly slipping back into the narrative. The first act ends so abruptly that it wasn’t until the lights came up that the audience realised it was the interval.

Act two opens with audience participation in the old playground game of ‘What’s the time, (Virgina) wolf?’ Why? I’m still not entirely sure. The story resumes with Green reading from the novel and alternately appearing on video dressed as a succession of characters, before Lucy returns to collect glasses from the audience as though she’s working at Clarissa’s party. But is it 1925 or 2026? Your guess is as good as mine. Green also points out that the novel still resonates today: in 1925 the world was recovering from a pandemic (Spanish flu), the country had rattled through five Prime Ministers in quick succession, and war was raging elsewhere in the world – plus ça change as Mrs Dalloway might have said. Later, Green once again breaks away from the story for a pulsating disco number, complete with more audience participation, before steering us towards the dénouement of this dull and at times soporific story.

This Mrs Dalloway is a curious blend of genres: part Book at Bedtime, part Upstairs, Downstairs, with generous helpings of cabaret, live music and even a touch of stand-up. It’s undeniably inventive but also rather bewildering, with the narrative frequently disappearing beneath the weight of ideas from Green and co-writer Jen Heyes. Green, however, is a terrific performer – warm, witty and hugely engaging – and I’d happily watch her in cabaret, preferably in a more intimate venue than Wilton’s.

Did this production make me want to read the novel? Not really. But judging by the enthusiastic response from much of last night’s audience, there are plenty of Woolf devotees who’ll relish it. Green uses the word “plunge” rather a lot during the evening, so if Mrs Dalloway sounds like your sort of thing, perhaps it’s worth taking a chance and diving right in.

Directed, co-created, written and produced by Jen Heyes
Co-written by Kit Green
Set & Costume Design by Simon Kenny
Lighting Design by Phil Saunders
Sound Design by Stephen Hull
Film & Video Design by Maxin Koeck
A co-production by Storyhouse, Harlow Playhouse and CutToTheChase Productions

Mrs Dalloway plays at Wilton’s Music Hall until Saturday 20 June.