RSC to stage adaptations of Mrs Dalloway and Piranesi

The Royal Shakespeare Company is to stage adaptations of Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel Mrs Dalloway and Susanna Clarke’s 2020 novel Piranesi. The productions were announced as part of a season by the company’s co-artistic directors, Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey.

Harvey will direct Mrs Dalloway, adapted by Zoe Cooper. The production is scheduled to open at the Swan theatre in April. Woolf’s novel follows a day in the life of its central character as she prepares a party, with the narrative moving between her thoughts and those of her guests.

Harvey described the adaptation as “hugely challenging”, saying the production would need to “bring the inside out” from Woolf’s use of stream of consciousness. She said Cooper’s version creates a sense of audiences moving in and out of people’s minds and different moments in their histories.

The RSC said the two novels pose significant adaptation challenges because both explore inner life on stage. The season also includes Elizabeth Debicki as Richard II and Damien Molony as Coriolanus. Mrs Dalloway will be the third major adaptation of Woolf’s novel staged in England within a year, following Kit Green’s one-woman performance and a version by Holly Robinson scheduled to open at the Yard in London in March.