Mrs Dalloway review – Virginia Woolf’s party planner plays all the roles herself

Storyhouse, Chester
Kit Green takes on all the characters in an imaginative interpretation of the 1925 day-in-the-life novel

As Clarissa Dalloway wafts about the stage, welcoming her audience indiscriminately before instigating party games, the essence of Virginia Woolf’s scrupulous socialite appears to be missing. But this stage adaptation – co-written by Jen Heyes, who directs, and Kit Green, who performs – is a playful re-examination of the novel, wrapped up as a multimedia-driven solo show.

Heyes has been experimenting with cine-theatre for some time. The format evokes the work of Australian director Kip Williams, though it’s simpler than his West End blockbusters, Sarah Snook’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Cynthia Erivo’s Dracula. In Heyes’s production, featuring Monika Koeck’s video design, Green’s Clarissa similarly interacts with many characters on screen, who she also portrays.

At Storyhouse, Chester, until 6 June. Then at Harlow Playhouse, Essex, 10-11 June; Wilton’s Music Hall, London, 16-20 June; and Home, Manchester, 24-26 September