VITA AND VIRGINIA

Pearls in the Desert
Depending on how [they] light it, the floor of the Cassis Carter is either water or a deep blue sky. Overhead hang white wisteria. Earthly objects, like Woolf’s desk, resemble islands, as do piles of books, protected by stones from the water/sky. Similar to Woolf’s and Sackville-West’s letters, and Woolf’s novel(s), the set, one of the most imaginative I’ve seen, is a realistic dreamscape that defies space and time. Guided by the Globe’s associate artistic director, Karen Carpenter, the show boasts invention and theatricality. Like the set, the actors transcend time and space. They are both themselves and each other’s creations. Monique Fowler is Virginia Woolf.
- Jeff Smith, The Reader

In the Globe’s thoroughly engaging production, vivaciously directed by Karen Carpenter, there is nothing so dull as two people standing at lecterns. Vita and Virginia range vigorously over an exquisitely dressed stage, delivering their literary rejoinders and ripostes with face-to-face physical immediacy. This entertaining play makes both of them seem to live and love again for at least a couple of hours.
-George Weinberg-Harter, Back Stage West