Once again, an international artist has found inspiration in Virginia Woolf’s novel The Waves.
This time, an art installation in Beirut, Lebanon, does the honors.
Thierry Kuntzel’s work, which is on display at the City Center Cinema Dome on the edge of downtown, is part of the Francophone Games.
Kuntzel’s installation, which is open until Oct. 28 from 5 – 9 p.m., references Woolf’s ground-breaking novel.
“’The Waves is a homage to Virginia Woolf, her writing, her invention of time, her personality – this life always on the edge of drowning (which was her real end), between terror and ecstasy,’” are the words Kuntzel includes in the display, according to a review in The Daily Star.
Other artists who have recently drawn on Woolf’s stream-of-consciousness novel for inspiration include:
- Choreographer Zoe Reeve, a graduate student in South Africa, who incorporated its words into her dance production, “Outside + Beside Herself,” staged in July.
- English director Katie Mitchell’s multi-media adaptation of the novel, which premiered in the United States in New York City, Nov. 14 through Nov. 22, 2008 and garnered rave reviews.
- Princeton, the California band who appeared at Woolf and the City in June, has written and performed a song titled “The Waves.” It’s the group’s most frequently downloaded number from its “Bloomsbury” album.
Alice Lowe
Catherine
Kaylee Baucom
Paula Maggio
Stefano Rozzoni
seanmcphail
suzannebellamy1
veronikakra
Vara Neverow
William Patrick Wend
Zoe Wolstenholme
As a fan of Virginia Woolf [see my blog, http://www.suchfriends.wordpress.com], and of the radio adaptation of The Waves on Radio 4, I was eager to see the play at the National. Although the techniques were interesting, and those actors really worked!, by the end I was wondering: Is that the best way to tell this story? I’m not sure if her work needed all those bells and whistles, interesting though they were. Anyone else feel the same?
I will be giving a series of presentations, The Literary Twenties, here in Birmingham UK next month. The first one is on Virginia, Leonard and the Hogarth Press, and we will watch either Mrs. Dalloway or The Hours. If anyone in the area is interested in coming, let me know.