We have to thank the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain for sharing the connection between Dame Maggie Smith, who died Sept. 27, and Virginia Woolf.
Below is information from their Facebook post of Sept. 29.
Although recently known as the Dowager Countess, Violet Crawley, in the TV series “Downton Abbey” (2000–15), Smith played Virginia Woolf in Edna O’Brien’s play “Virginia” in 1981. She won her third Evening Standard Theatre Award for her performance at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, beginning January 29, 1981.
In that same year the play script was published under the Hogarth Press imprint, with photographs of Maggie Smith and Virginia Woolf on the cover.You can see pictures from the book and the programme below.
