Rating: * * * *
Kit Green delivered a spectacular performance as Viginia Woolf’s complex character, Mrs Dalloway!
Virginia Woolf’s radical novella published over 100 years ago is a difficult read even if you are a fan of her work not just because of the themes but also the due to the introspective style – a stream of consciousness that is often obsessively egotistical and highly self-indulgent. However Kit Green (co-writer and sole performer) brought a refreshingly new and enchantingly raw perspective to this late 19th century technique (1890 to be more precise) alongside Adaptor and Director Jem Heyes.
The play commenced before Green took to the stage in character as Clarissa Dalloway; sashaying around the audience inviting us to her party. This set the tone from the outset as an immersive performance.
Green played all sixteen characters with ease during the production. The more notable deliveries came in the form of: the melancholic, Septimus who suffered PTSD following the war; Dalloway’s stoic and stable husband Richard, Sally Seton, the blunt and acid-tongued maid Lucy and even the penknife wielding, rebuked passionate Peter Walsh, Dalloway’s former suitor whose proposal was declined.
Despite the outstanding digital artwork, and filmed sequences by Monicka Koeck whose husband, exceptionally complimentary of his wife’s artistic skills – my husband really needs a few tips on how to give compliments from him – I chatted at length to before the play and Simon Kenny’s simple yet effective set design, I felt the play lost momentum at times. More often it was brought back during the narration before the monologues however sometimes not. Green’s chats with the audience centred around her perspective of Woolfs’s work and whilst comedic, for me, disjointed the production.
However, this is play not to be missed, even if not familiar with Woolfs work as Green is mesmerising and enchanting as the repressed Clarissa, even delighting the audiences with an original score from Green’s repertoire thoroughly in-keeping with the play.
To book tickets for its debut run at Storyhouse Chester until Sat 6th June please contact the box office or try to catch it on its tour.
MRS DALLOWAY TOUR LISTINGS
Storyhouse – Chester
Friday 29 May – Saturday 6 June 2026
storyhouse.com | 01244 409113
Harlow Playhouse
Wednesday 10 – Thursday 11 June 2026
harlowplayhouse.co.uk | 01279 431945
Wilton’s Music Hall – London
Tuesday 16 – Saturday 20 June 2026
wiltons.org.uk | 020 7702 2789
HOME – Manchester
Thursday 24 – Saturday 26 September 2026
homemcr.org | 0161 200 1500
Photo Credit: Megan Bennett
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Rating: * * * * * A first-class production in every element of the play. Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novella is
The Broken Spine is a poetry and arts collective proudly published on the coastal edge of North-West England. Founded in 2019 by Alan Parry and Paul Robert Mullen – two school friends reunited after twenty years through a mutual love of poetry.
