Review: A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN – ADELAIDE FRINGE 2025 at Main Theatre, Adelaide College Of The Arts

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Saturday 22nd February 2025.

Dyad Productions presents the second of its three productions for this year’s Fringe, with Rebecca Vaughan, directed by Andrew Margerison, in A Room of One’s Own, based on the September 1929 essay drawn from two talks on Women and Fiction, given by Virginia Woolf to the Newnham Arts Society at Newnham College, and the ODTAA Society (One Damn Thing After Another) at Girton College, Cambridge University, in October 1928.

Vaughan has used this extended essay as the basis of her script, recreating much of those two talks, and she takes on the role of Virginia Woolf in an energetic and enthusiastic performance. Her use of body language adds much to the spoken part of the performance. A chair, and a desk littered with books, form the setting, but Vaughan makes use of the entire stage, returning only to sip from a glass and occasionally pick up books from which she extracts quotations to support her argument.

The basic premise is that a woman “must possess £500 a year and have a room of her own” if she wants to become a writer. The history of women, going back over several centuries, shows that such a situation is a relatively recent possibility. Not too long ago, only men went to university as it was felt that women needed no education to look after a husband, children, and the home. They had no possessions of their own, and any money they might earn belonged to the husband. They certainly lacked any private space.

Woolf posited that if Shakespeare had had a sister, the fictional Judith, equally as gifted as William, and one was to compare their two lives, he having the freedom to do whatever he wanted, and her restricted by being a woman, it could be seen why she would never have produced works such as his, even though she had the potential.

Vaughan assumes the mantle of Woolf, engaging, not only with the text, but with every emotion behind the words. She makes a strong connection with the audience by treating them as those who attended Woolf’s talks, making eye contact and speaking directly to individuals, or to the audience as a whole. This is a highly effective strategy that ensures the audience gains an extra level of involvement with the performance.

Vaughan gives a wonderful performance as the iconic writer and philosopher, conveying Woolf’s thoughts and conclusions with clarity through a thoroughly committed characterisation. Every move, every gesture, every facial expression, is important, and not a word is wasted. It is a master class in acting.

It has been too many years since Rebecca Vaughan appeared at our Fringe, performing only a few metres away at what was then Higher Ground, a venue long gone, sadly. We can only hope that we do not have to wait so long to see her here again