Vanessa and Virginia - A Play

The debut play Vanessa and Virginia by Elizabeth Wright based on the novel by Susan Sellers concentrates on the relationship between the modernist writer Virginia Woolf and her post-impressionist artist sister, Vanessa Bell. It is a dreamlike tale of tortured talent, sibling conflict, domestic discord, disappointed love affairs, and emotional despair, laced with artistic triumph and humour. The play is being directed and produced by the Enterprise partner, Emma Gersch of ProActive Prodcutions as a project which will give an opportunity to a recent graduate actress from Bath Spa University and as a chance to create a liaison between ProActive Productions and the playwright Dr Elizabeth Wright from Bath Spa University. Vanessa and Virginia offers an exciting challenge to the graduate actress playing one of the eponymous roles, as she must portray Virginia Woolf from childhood to old age. The part requires a massive emotional range and the actress must make sense of a relationship that was intensely, often obsessively, loving, but at the same time bitterly jealous. The play is being toured to a wide range of venues from theatres to farmhouses, from stately homes to academic conferences where it will be presented in conjunction with academic papers on Woolf and adaptation. The play gives the writer/academic, graduate actress and enterprise partner, ProActive Productions, the opportunity to collaborate on a brand new play. The project also helps to forge wider collaborations between ProActive Productions and the Cambridge University composer Jeremy Thurlow, who will be writing an original score, as well as students from ArtsWork Media who have been commissioned to design a moving image set and two further graduates of Bath Spa University have been taken on as technical staff. The collaborative nature of this project makes it an exciting enterprise. It is assisting the early career progress of a young actress; it is offering the chance for a new creative relationship between Bath Spa University, Cambridge University and a London-based production company. The play also benefits the general public who will be exposed to a unique theatrical experience which uses visual moving image art inspired by Vanessa Bell’s paintings as a backdrop, an original score, a brand new play and raw theatre talent, they will also be intrigued to find out more about the life and works of these very gifted sisters.