After a highly acclaimed stint at last year’s world renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival and appearances at the Auckland Writers’ Festival last week, London-based actress Rebecca Vaughan ascended our shores to perform Dalloway at the Sydney Writers’ Festival this week.

At the Eternity Playhouse in Darlinghurst, I watched Vaughan delight the audience with an energised and diverse performance. In just 90 minutes, she moved deftly between seventeen characters navigating post war London on a single hot, blue June day – widely accepted to be 13 June, 1923.

Central to Dalloway is the genteel Clarissa, who dismisses her own complexity: she knew nothing; no language; no history; she scarcely read a book now, whose frivolity as she prepares to host a party for her politician husband belies an inner turmoil.

As the audience becomes privy to the richer inner life of Virginia Woolf’s heroine, it too becomes acquainted with the brief, sad story of disturbed Great War veteran Septimus Warren Smith, whose suicide at the end of the play underscores the ignorance of his Harley street diagnostician and establishes him as the alter ego, or double, of Clarissa Dalloway.

Below, Rebecca ruminates on why the post-war tale, which epitomises Woolf’s stream of consciousness style, continues to resonate with readers and audiences, and the importance of adapting great literary works for the stage.

Dalloway is based on Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel Mrs Dalloway – published nearly 100 years ago. Can you comment on the story’s ongoing relevance?

In my view, society continues to grapple with the issues and themes Woolf explored in her novel. There is a tendency to think of the past as twee, but nothing has changed all that much. We do not wear those modest frocks any longer, but we are still the same.

Like Clarissa, people feel still feel trapped by social station, convention and what is expected of them.

Through the character of Septimus, Woolf explored her concerns about the plight of soldiers in the aftermath of the war, and her fears that their pain was not being recognised or adequately dealt with. Today, whilst we have made some progress towards understanding mental health issues, we still have a long way to go.

When Clarissa pauses to remember the sweet and erotic kiss she shared with Sally Seton years before (take Sally Seton; her relation in the old days with Sally Seton. Had not that, after all, been love?) Woolf shows us that homosexuality is natural and beautiful, at the same time as acknowledging that, at that time, it was not considered permissible by society. Again, ninety years later, sections of society continue to struggle with these concepts.

What appeals to you most about the story of Mrs Dalloway and why?

There are so many things I love about this story.

First, I’m a huge fan of modernism (a movement with which Woolf was associated, along with other writers such as Joyce, Yeats and Kafka); the sweeping away of all that has passed; and the exploration of the interior, the inner consciousness.

Second, I love the sense of connectivity that pervades the story – the common thread between humanity, the sense that, yes, we are solitary but we at the same time together in that as well.

Third, I love the end. It is ambiguous and restrained, yet powerful. Woolf, whilst never explicit about Clarissa’s own suffering,clearly draws parallels between two otherwise very different characters. In granting a certain fate to Septimus, she permits Clarissa to have a beautiful moment of clarity, make a decision for herself, and to keep on living.

Congratulations on such an entrancing performance. How did Dyad Productions (with director Elton Townend Jones and you at the helm) conceive of portraying Woolf’s novel in this way?

I have always loved Mrs Dalloway and Elton and I wanted to adapt it for the stage for about six years before we started the project. Originally, we conceived of it as a two person act – naturally enough, a female playing the various female roles and a male playing the male roles.

However, because the notion that everyone is connected, that there is a common thread through everybody, is so central to the novel, it became apparent we could honour this message better by having one person portray all characters.

In addition, there is something so powerful about a one person act – there is a bond between you the performer, and the audience, in a way there just isn’t if there is a second person on stage. You are interacting with the audience and the audience alone – they can see the whites of your eyes; and you theirs.

Dyad Productions specialise in adapting literary works for the stage – as distinct from works that were originally written for the stage. What’s the greatest challenge in achieving this?

Whilst not all of our productions are literary adaptions – for example, previous works including I, Elizabeth, and the Unremarkable Death of Marilyn Monroe were not – our approach, generally, is that we aren’t necessarily interested in producing someone else’s play.

The greatest challenge about bringing a literary adaptation to life on the stage is creating a sensory experience for the audience – making it about the story, but also conveying a feeling and a sense of place and time.

In Dalloway, used a strange, eerie light to represent Septimus’ headspace when he was speaking (rather than something more obvious, like the sounds of war). We used a deliberately simple stage, designed to feel modernist and plain – a blank canvas on which we could paint the story. Because I was playing both sexes (but only wore Clarissa’s green dress throughout), we chose a masculine style dress, so that when I sat down, the skirts would resemble pants, while stitching on the top is reminiscent of military tailoring.

It’s about using subtle techniques to guide the audience, to encourage them to come on the journey, whilst leaving them with the freedom to come to their own interpretation.

The story, famously, depicts just one day in history. Yet over the duration of the play, you inhabit so many different characters of varying complexity. How much research and rehearsal goes into a multi-faceted performance like this?

Developing Dalloway has been the most satisfying and collaborative experience.

Ultimately, we wanted to stay faithful to the text. Given the novel is so complex, we were careful to take it apart. It was about getting all those little movements, and minute details, right. Our approach was almost archaeological – we kept honing it to make it tighter, sharper.

We made the decision not to watch any other adaptations until we were satisfied with what we had created – so the extent of our ‘research’ was the text itself.

While we wanted to keep the essence of the novel, we were at pains to give Dalloway its own voice. We wanted to make it about Clarissa Dalloway’s world, her space. It was a deliberate decision to drop the ‘Mrs’.

Favourite line from the noveland why?

I have so many, but “…when London is a grass-grown path and all those hurrying up along the pavement this Wednesday morning are but bones with a few wedding rings mixed up in their dust…” is so evocative.

Who do you take inspiration from as an actor?

Funnily enough, whilst I strongly admire other actors – Julianne Moore is but one example – in my own work, I only like to take inspiration from the text I am working with.

Who would be the ultimate literary character or figure for you to play, and why?

Clarissa Dalloway is right up there for me.

Traditionally, I’ve been drawn to characters with rich interior lives. However, unless you are lucky enough to play a Lady MacBeth, a lot of female roles – being cast as the wife or girlfriend – can be limiting. For this reason, I’ve always gravitated towards male roles, like Hamlet. 

Now, because my involvement in Dyad Productions has exposed me to not just performance but writing and all aspects of production, it has become less about roles that I want to play and more about works I want to create. For me, the character is just one part of a bigger picture.

Do you have any advice for performers or other creatives starting out?

1. Figure out what it is you want, and work towards what you love, not a vague idea. If you love film and TV, but not theatre, aim for those. If it is the opposite, the same advice applies.
2. Learn about the industry, be interested and excited.
3. Don’t just wait around for your agent to call. Continue to flex your creative muscle during down time.
4. Stay true to yourself. I was once in a position where I was involved in a big stage production. When it became about egos rather than the story, the audience, and that wonderful interaction, I changed direction and have not looked back.

The Sydney Writers’ Festival commenced on 18 May 2015 and concludes on 24 May 2015. Hundreds of writers have coursed through Sydney’s literary landmarks to contemplate, alongside their audiences, that ubiquitous question and theme of this year’s SWF: how to live?

On 23 May 2015, Rebecca Vaughan participates in a panel discussion, ‘Bringing Literature to Life’, alongside Claire Tomalin, Anthony Horowitz and Kate Evans.

Have you seen Rebecca Vaughan perform? Tell us below…