Nominated for 5 Off-West End Awards!

Vanessa and Virginia began its journey as a collaboration at Bath Spa University, and went on to open at the International Virginia Woolf Conference in Aix-en-Provence. With support from the Virginia Woolf/Vanessa Bell estate, we were able to continue touring the show to Poland, Germany, Scotland and across the UK. Following its success, the production transferred to London’s Riverside Studios for a 3 week sell-out run in April 2013. 

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Based on the acclaimed novel by Susan Sellers, Elizabeth Wright’s innovative play is a moving, poetic and powerful story about the remarkable sisters, novelist Virginia Woolf and artist Vanessa Bell. 

“Our faces are imperfect replicas of each other, as if the painter were trying to capture the same person from different angles”

Fusing original music and poetic text, the play creates a dream-like, meditative quality, moving gracefully through time and seamlessly transporting the audience through places, events and memories. The play is enhanced by an interwoven projected backdrop of evolving images, inspired by paintings by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. 

Vanessa and Virginia are sisters, best friends, bitter rivals, and artistic collaborators. As children, they fight for attention. As young women, they stake their claims on bohemian Bloomsbury, creating new lives and groundbreaking works of art. Through everything — marriage, lovers, loss, madness, children, success, and failure — they remain the closest of co-conspirators. But they also betray each other. A love letter and an elegy from Vanessa Bell to her sister, ‘Vanessa and Virginia’ is a stunning portrait of sibling rivalry and an imaginative triumph.