Taking to the stage as the “COVID officer” for the night, Artistic Director Eamon Flack briefly introduced Belvoir’s new adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own – the first show to open at the venue in six months.

It was, he said, the first time he was happy about having a third full audience. Funnily enough the social distancing didn’t make you feel isolated. Of course it was different to sitting in a packed crowd, but there was still a genuine sense of being part of an audience and sharing a performance together, albeit wearing masks. And how exhilarating it was to be back in a theatre, experiencing a live performance with a gathering of others.

Anita Hegh in A Room of One’s Own. Photograph © Brett Boardman

Rehearsals for the play began in March, ahead of the scheduled April opening. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit and the production had to be postponed. Anita Hegh, who delivers Woolf’s words, has therefore had to keep the text percolating in her mind for six months. Maybe that’s why she finds such extraordinary depth in it, and delivers it with such subtlety and dramatic assurance.

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