Vita & Virginia

Set amidst the bohemian high society of 1920s England, Vita & Virginia tells the scintillating true story of a literary love affair that fueled the imagination of one of the 20th century’s most celebrated writers. Vita Sackville-West (Gemma Arterton) is the brash, aristocratic wife of a diplomat who refuses to be constrained by her marriage, defiantly courting scandal through her affairs with women. When she meets the brilliant but troubled Virginia Woolf (Elizabeth Debicki), she is immediately attracted to the famed novelist’s eccentric genius and enigmatic allure. So begins an intense, passionate relationship marked by all-consuming desire, intellectual gamesmanship, and destructive jealousy that will leave both women profoundly transformed and inspire the writing of one of Woolf’s greatest works, Orlando.

The screen play was written by Chanya Button, the director, and Eileen Atkins, with quotations from letters written by Vita and Virginia to each other. Atkins wrote the play that the screenplay is based on, which was performed in 1993. She also wrote the screenplay for the film of the Woolf novel, Mrs Dalloway, which was released in 1997, so she has a long creative relationship with these two characters. The film has been described as being ‘like a beautiful ballad or poetry’ and the music, written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s sister, Isabel, as ‘a synth-pop-esque score (that) feels refreshing against the 1920s backdrop’ and not out of place.

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Venue: William Loveless Hall