Woolf Works - The Royal Ballet

The first revival of Wayne McGregor’s critically acclaimed ballet triptych, inspired by the works of Virginia Woolf.

The pioneering literary work of Virginia Woolf is the inspiration for multi-award-winning choreographer Wayne McGregor's brilliant triptych for The Royal Ballet. McGregor has long been at the cutting edge of ballet, working with collaborators from across the artistic world, and in this critically acclaimed work he combines themes from three of Woolf's landmark novels – Mrs Dalloway, Orlando and The Waves – with elements of her letters, essays and diaries. Acclaimed British composer Max Richter (Infra, Sum and Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons) creates a specially commissioned score incorporating electronic and live music.

Reviews

★★★★★The Stage - McGregor’s most mature work, it is a precision-tooled example of how best to convey the essence of a literary source without being a slave to interpretation.

★★★★Independent - Alessandra Ferri is luminous as the Virginia Woolf figure

★★★★ The Times - The powerful score is saturated with emotion just like the choreography, which seems to grow organically out of the mist of Woolf’s memories

★★★★Telegraph - At 53, Alessandra Ferri is almost exactly the age of Woolf’s protagonist, whose flickering play of emotion she embodies with haunting delicacy and precision.

Approximate running time 2 hours 35 minutes, including two intervals, plus a 15-minute introduction.