Process

These are the notes for a talk I gave regarding the process of adapting the novel and its translation from script to performance. Please forgive the roughness of the prose, it was not typed to be read by other eyes and I added and subtracted as I gave the talk. I also didn't check grammar and spelling! I refer to slides throughout so ignore these references. Nevertheless, here are my thoughts:

There are a number of difficulties with reducing a full length book into short play. I had to be ruthlessness and focussed only on aspects of the book pertaining to Vanessa and Virginia’s ‘close conspiracy’. I cut the majority of the passages where, for example, Vanessa is in conversation with others e.g. her conversation about Virginia with Stella is removed p. 21 and more minor relationships e.g. with Jack Hills pp. 31-32. This was partly due to space, but partly due to the fact that the play had to appeal to non-Bloomsbury scholars and, of course, the more names one introduces, the more confused people get.

BUT, this was still too much, so I focused only on aspects of their relationship which I believed were absolutely vital to our understanding of them, so even moments where Vanessa is intimate with key figures in her life had to be downplayed or removed e.g. the moment on pp.158-159 when she tells Angelica who her father really is, is edited out. I had to keep reminding myself that this play is called ‘Vanessa and Virginia’. This was difficult to achieve as I didn’t want to lose the flavour of the novel in process.

Other difficulties surrounded transforming a book which reads as a series of moments, episodes or prose paintings, into a play. Knowing how challenging such a fluid structure would be on stage, it was simply a case of hoping that the audience would be able to enter into the dreamlike fluidity of the swift succession of scenes and follow on the slightest of hints. I knew that we would have to recruit some very daring and emotionally mature actresses to achieve this, as the play has to move much more swiftly than the novel. The actors would have to transform from laughter to tears within the space of a few lines and from to youth, to maturity, to old age within the course of just an hour and a half. The novel has line breaks to help this transition, we had to rely on the shifting images, music and the actors’ skills. These difficulties were assisted by props and costume, but mainly relied on the skill of the actress.

Of course, some of the problems with editing the novel down were side-stepped by the nature of drama itself. They say that a picture tells a thousand words, which is a good thing because it allowed me to say certain thing without words. So much can be said visually through the movements and expressions of the actors, by the use of props and costume, and by the design of the set. My initial plans for the set were to have a moving image backdrop that reflected the mood and set the scene for the action unfolding on stage, but this seemed too literal for such a dreamlike play. So I wrote into the script the paintings which Susan describes in her novel and which would, in part, act as background. In an early performance of a tiny section (now cut) at the Cambridge ‘Making Sense’ Conference in September last year, I asked a friend to animate Bell’s 1914 Abstract and timed its evolution to coincide with various words and mood changes in the script. As you can see this is unfolding behind me as I speak. This I decided was firstly too distracting and secondly too expensive considering the amount of copyright permissions, so Emma Gersch (the director) and I, got in touch with the curator at Charleston and, with the permission of Henrietta Garnett, the set designers went and took photographs of the house. It is from tiny parts of these photographs that we abstracted our backdrop. Here is a selection of some of the images.

Emma and I then spent a very long day deciding on which parts of the images would best evoke specific moods. This is the table of the images that we decided to use and which parts of the image should form the basis of the picture behind the action. We then instructed the students working for Artswork Media in Bristol to play with and animate these images which evolve in the background.

Other ways round the need for more words included music and dance, the first to express mood and the second to express emotion. Here we have three different clips from the beautiful original score by composer Jeremy Thurlow of Cambridge University.

Dance was also used by the director to express certain feelings without the need for Vanessa to stand up and explain them, for example, the feeling of freedom Vanessa feels when she paints in St Ives and this moment expresses all the other moments in the novel when Vanessa speaks about the freedom she feels through painting:

Other dilemmas I came across with the script included whether to use 2 actresses or to bring other characters into play. It was pretty obvious that with the concentration on their relationship that the two actresses would prove a stronger focus for the story, but there were moments when I had to have other characters in order to make sense of the sisters’ bond. I side-stepped this problem in several ways. Firstly, by using imaginary figures, for example, the moment when Vanessa is showing Thoby her paintings and Virginia cuts in to steal him away, or by having the character give an impression of another person, for example, the section in the novel where George takes Vanessa out and parades her like a thoroughbred horse was transformed into Vanessa imitating George’s manner for Virginia. Compare pp. 29-30 in the novel with the script:

Vanessa: (to audience) I come into the drawing room swathed in white voile overlaid with black and silver sequins. I have amethysts and opals round my neck and my hair is pinned with enamel butterflies. George raises his eyeglass and appraises me. There is no difference between his gesture and his scrutiny of the Arab mare he has bought for my daily rides. I look to you for protection but you turn away.

(speaking to Virginia) At the party the rooms are ablaze with light. [Imitating George and miming a handshake] ‘Mr Chamberlain, allow me to introduce my half-sister, Miss Vanessa Stephen’. Miserably I shake his hand. I can think of nothing to say. I know George is angry. [Imitating George] ‘Would you like to tell me what that was about? I suppose you think it’s amusing to insult people. Your hair was awful, too!’

(to audience) George’s constant haranguing, his perpetual reminders as to our place and obligations, focused what might otherwise have remained vague longings for an alternative.

The actress who played Virginia was also scripted to play the role of Sir Leslie Stephen who shouts at Vanessa for the household accounts so pp. 34-35 of the novel becomes:

Virginia sits at the desk in imitation of Leslie Stephen

Vanessa: [To Virginia as father] The accounts, Father.

Virginia: [Imitating Leslie] What’s this? Strawberries! You allowed Sophie to order strawberries in May! Salmon! Do you mean to tell me that the fish we ate Tuesday last was salmon? Look at the price girl! You stand there like a block of stone! Do you wish to ruin me? Can you not imagine what it’s like for me now? Have you no pity?

The director also decided to use the actress playing Virginia to play Duncan (though he has no dialogue in the script).

Problems of dialogue. There isn’t much dialogue in the novel it is weighted, as the luxury of the novel form allows, towards reflection, observation and description; beautiful, but largely unworkable in drama. I therefore had to ensure that there was a balance of dialogue with monologue. Monologue can become dull to an audience. The first few drafts were far too monologue heavy and so I had to keep reworking it until I felt there was a better balance. I did this by reading the play aloud as I went along and playing the two characters myself. My flatmates started to suspect they were living with a schizophrenic! But as this is something Woolf used to do when writing her novels, I though what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Even so, there were two moments when the rehearsal process highlighted this as a problem. One of these moments came when I had allowed Vanessa the luxury of describing her paintings, but it was a luxury that Emma Gersch was sure the audience wouldn’t thank me for, so, at her request, I rewrote this long section where Vanessa describes her paintings, as dialogue. Thus this:

Scene transition - As Vanessa speaks the images slowly unfold layer on layer on the screen behind her.

Vanessa: I am working on two large canvases simultaneously. I move back and forth between them. In the first picture, an elegantly dressed woman perches on a footstool in front of a fire. She is gazing at the naked figure of a small boy, her son, we suppose. There is a coolness in her look, an aloofness, as if she is holding something in check. On the right of the picture a second woman is seated on a sofa with a much smaller child. She is dressed in workaday clothes. Unlike the first woman, she is fully engaged with the child she is holding. The woman on the footstool has a mirror and handkerchief in her hand. I cannot decide if these are intended for the boy or are part of her own preparation for leaving. Something about the way she gazes at the boy tells us she will soon depart. There is resignation as well as wistfulness in her expression. She is studying the boy far too intently, instead of clasping him to her. It is as if she knows that in order to detach herself she must restrain from loving him. There are no children in the second picture. On the left a nude reclines on a sofa, resting perhaps, from her work of posing as a model. On the right the woman is fully dressed, staring at the arrangement of fruit on the table before her. She appears indifferent to the woman on the sofa. Whatever she finds in the fruit bowl preoccupies her entirely. I cannot finish this second picture. There remains something vacant at its heart. The void persists. I begin to sense that neither of the women is central to the painting: whatever work of art they are creating seems somehow beyond their reach. Something in the women’s demeanour implies that I am responsible for their failure, that it is my task to alter their fate. Yet I scarcely know how.

Became this:

Scene transition – They stand gradually, move boxes together and sit together. They focus on two canvases in front of them.

64 – Painting M21 fades out as they begin speaking.

Vanessa: [to Virginia] I am working on two large canvases simultaneously. In this picture, we can see an elegantly dressed woman perching on a footstool in front of a fire. She’s gazing at the naked figure of a small boy, her son, we suppose.

Virginia: (looking at Vanessa) There is a coolness in her look, an aloofness, as if she’s holding something in check.

Vanessa: (nods) Here, on the right, the second woman is seated on a sofa with a much smaller child, she’s more engaged with the child she’s holding, but something about the way she gazes at the boy tells us she will soon depart.

Virginia: There’s resignation and wistfulness in her expression. She is studying the child far too intently, Nessa. Must she detach herself if she is to refrain from loving it?

Vanessa: [ignoring Virginia and indicating the 2^nd picture] There are no children in this second picture. On the left a nude reclines, while on the right, the woman is fully dressed, staring at the arrangement of fruit on the table before her.

Virginia: Whatever she finds in that fruit bowl is preoccupying her entirely!

Vanessa: I cannot finish this picture. There’s something vacant at its heart. [to self/audience] The void persists. I’m beginning to sense that neither of the women is central to the painting: whatever work of art they are creating seems somehow beyond their reach. [Looks at Virginia, then moves behind her) Something in the women’s demeanour implies that I am responsible for their failure, that it is my task to alter their fate. Yet I scarcely know how.

Obviously, theatre is a more collaborative process than fiction. Many more people have a creative impact on it: the director, the actresses, the lighting designer, the sound designer, the set designer all contribute to the overall effect. For example, my original script had Virginia entering and exiting at various moments, but the Director, Emma Gersch wanted Virginia on-stage at all times. This is, I think, a very sensible idea and useful for intensifying the focus of their relationship. The actresses obviously bring their own ideas to the delineation of their characters, but they were also, at one point, asked to write letters to each other in the style of Vanessa and Virginia which Emma and I decided were a perfect way to express the frustration they both felt when Virginia was taken away for Dr Savage’s rest cure:

Vanessa: Dearest Billy

Virginia: Dearest Nessa

Vanessa:

1) I hope this reaches you well and that you are recovering every day./

2) My news is only of our new home. My days are spent decorating our new rooms the walls are white with simple furniture./

3)The light feeds my soul. I have placed your desk in front of your window so you may look out over the trees as you write./

4) We have our own room and no unwanted footsteps outside our doors./

5) I cannot wait to share with you this place. I long for your return. /

6) Nessa.

Virginia:

1) I can’t begin to say how much I am longing to see you. I don’t think I can bear much more of this imprisonment./

2) I haven’t had any sort of real conversation for weeks. Won’t you write to them and tell them to let me come back to you sooner? You understand me better than they do./

3)I fear I will only continue to fade unless you rescue me. I promise to be good. The dark and emptiness of each day is numbing my mind./

4) Tell me about what you’ve done. Tell me it all. Tell me of the house, the garden.

Don’t, whatever you do, forget anything about me. The thought of seeing you is all that keeps me going./

5) Wouldn’t you like us to be together again? Bring me home. Please bring me home/

6) Billy

Rehearsals.

a. As I have already hinted, the rehearsal process highlighted certain areas that needed to be re-envisioned. It was also vital to the success of the production for the two actresses to become fully immersed in the lives of these women. During the rehearsals, the room was covered in their research.

b. And at various moments they contacted me for guidance about the relationships and characters that the sisters were referring to, and I was also requested to add the ages of Vanessa into the script to help them.

c. The rehearsal process was also itinerant, as some rehearsals were conducted at Bath Spa, others at Mountview and further ones at Robinson College in Cambridge where the composer was able to work closely with the production to create a score that reflects the events unfolding in the sisters’ lives.

The finished product

d. We now have a fully fledged play that was given its first flight at the Contemporary Woolf Conference in Aix en Provence.

e. The production is poised on the edge of a UK and European tour, partly made possible though AHRC funding.

f. You can catch the play in Glasgow June 2011 as part of the International Woolf Conference.

g. It will also be on at the Bloomsbury Adaptations Conference at Bath Spa University on the 5^th and 6^th May next year. Further details of this can be found on the website: www.bathspa.ac.uk/bloomsbury