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Woolf Works

26 June9 July 2020

Woolf Works

26 June9 July 2020

Woolf Works

26 June9 July 2020
Online only
Ballet and dance
Akane Takada in Woolf Works © 2017 ROH. Photograph by Andrej Uspenski
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Wayne McGregor’s award-winning ballet triptych is inspired by the writings of Virginia Woolf, with an original score by Max Richter.

#royaloperahouse
With warm thanks to

Mrs Aline Foriel Destezet (Season Principal), Aud Jebsen, The Kirsh Foundation and all the supporters of The Royal Ballet

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Background

Online premiere: Friday 26 June 2020 at 7pm BST, broadcast free online as part of the Royal Opera House's #OurHouseToYourHouse series.

Virginia Woolf defied narrative conventions to depict a heightened, startling and poignant reality. Wayne McGregor’s ballet triptych Woolf Works was inspired by the writings of Virginia Woolf and has an original score by Max Richter. It was created for The Royal Ballet in 2015 and met with outstanding critical acclaim, going on to win McGregor the Critics’ Circle Award for Best Classical Choreography and the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production. The Observer described it as ‘a compellingly moving experience’; for The Independent it ‘glows with ambition… a brave, thoughtful work’; The Guardian concluded that ‘it takes both McGregor – and the concept of the three-act ballet – to a brave and entirely exhilarating new place’.

Woolf Works re-creates the emotions, themes and fluid style of three of Woolf’s novels: Mrs DallowayOrlando and The Waves. These inspirations are also enmeshed with elements from her letters, essays and diaries such that Woolf Works expresses the heart of an artistic life driven to discover a freer, uniquely modern realism. It brings to life Woolf’s world of ‘granite and rainbow’, where human beings are at once both physical body and uncontained essence.

Cast and Creatives

Creatives
Direction and choreography

Wayne McGregor

Costume Designer

Moritz Junge

Lighting Designer

Lucy Carter

Film designer

Ravi Deepres

Sound designer

Chris Ekers

Make-up designer

Kabuki

Dramaturgy

Uzma Hameed

Antonio Pappano in rehearsal for Live from Covent Garden, 13 June 2020 ©2020 ROH. Photograph by Lara Cappelli

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