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Virginia Woolf: BBC Radio Drama Collection
The collected BBC radio adaptations of Virginia Woolf’s pioneering modernist novels.
The Voyage Out
A sea voyage to South America turns into a journey of self-discovery for naïve Rachel Vinrace.
Night and Day
In pre-First World War London, aristocrat Katharine Hilbery and suffragette Mary Datchet have their assumptions about love challenged.
Mrs Dalloway
Virginia Woolf’s masterpiece charts one day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, as she prepares to host an important party.
To the Lighthouse
Centring around a summer home on Skye, Virginia Woolf’s landmark tale follows the Ramsay family and their guests before and after World War I.
Orlando
The adventures of time-travelling, gender-swapping poet Orlando, who is born male in Elizabethan England and dies female over 300 years later.
The Waves
In this radical ‘play-poem’, six characters look back on their childhood and first forays into adulthood, and reflect on the loss of their friend Percival.
Between the Acts
An eccentric artist devises a pageant celebrating English history – but it is 1939, and the shadow of war hangs over England’s present.
Among the stars of these seven poignant, penetrating dramatisations are Bertie Carvel, Kristin Scott-Thomas, Dervla Kirwan, John Lynch, Geraldine James, Anna Massey and Don Warrington.
The Voyage Out
A sea voyage to South America turns into a journey of self-discovery for naïve Rachel Vinrace.
Night and Day
In pre-First World War London, aristocrat Katharine Hilbery and suffragette Mary Datchet have their assumptions about love challenged.
Mrs Dalloway
Virginia Woolf’s masterpiece charts one day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, as she prepares to host an important party.
To the Lighthouse
Centring around a summer home on Skye, Virginia Woolf’s landmark tale follows the Ramsay family and their guests before and after World War I.
Orlando
The adventures of time-travelling, gender-swapping poet Orlando, who is born male in Elizabethan England and dies female over 300 years later.
The Waves
In this radical ‘play-poem’, six characters look back on their childhood and first forays into adulthood, and reflect on the loss of their friend Percival.
Between the Acts
An eccentric artist devises a pageant celebrating English history – but it is 1939, and the shadow of war hangs over England’s present.
Among the stars of these seven poignant, penetrating dramatisations are Bertie Carvel, Kristin Scott-Thomas, Dervla Kirwan, John Lynch, Geraldine James, Anna Massey and Don Warrington.
12 pages, Audible Audio
Published April 4, 2019
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43 people want to read
About the author
Virginia Woolf
1,906 books29.1k followers(Adeline) Virginia Woolf was an English novelist and essayist regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century.
During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929) with its famous dictum, "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929) with its famous dictum, "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 12, 2020
Listening to this collection of seven adapted for radio drama made light work of Virginia Woolf’s novels. Of the seven I’ve read three, each of which I thought followed the plot pretty faithfully. My favourite productions were two I’ve yet to read, To the Lighthouse, and The Waves. The first, starring Vanessa Redgrave and Juliet Stevenson, effortlessly uses irony in a comical way where I found myself frequently laughing. There’s a wonderful scene between Mr and Mrs Ramsey, where, he’s wanting to desperately tell his wife he loves her, when she understands her interior response is a mix of tiredness and a pressure to please, so she gives him a very small compliment. Hearing this, Mr Ramsey’s joy is so out of proportion with the tiny crumb he receives that it made me laugh, but at the same time it’s very sweet as he is elated his wife still loves him.
The Waves in comparison was sober in tone, but I liked how the sounds affects were mixed and the story edited; as it cut between different characters and their memories (sometimes of the same moment). It was a wonderful audio experience, to not just be drawn into the drama by the words, but also the sounds, where I was made to feel I was going back and forth in time with the characters. Orlando also jumps in time but it didn’t make me feel the waves of time like this one did.
To the Voyage Out, Night and Day and Mrs Dalloway were enjoyable, where I thought out of the seven Night and Day is the plainest, but maybe I’m being unfair, I remember reading how Virginia Woolf was disappointed with the reception of her first novel To the Voyage Out and so toned down the need to experiment with language in Night and Day, her second novel, but found this was a disappointment to her family and friends, so when she wrote her third, Mrs Dalloway, she was once again trying to find expressions that captures the complex layers that exist between two people. So, Night and Day is a good adaptation, acting is brilliant – and as a story it works – but against the other six it came across as bland.
My least favourite was Between the Acts, like the all the others the focus was time, memories, many references to Shakespeare and a party. There were loads of characters, and maybe I didn’t enjoy it as much as I was losing trek of where I was and what was happening. The strongest impression this play left on me was it was quirky, and the camaraderie reminded me of a community theatre. When it ended I was left with the impression that not much happened – I know this can’t be true as this is Virginia Woolf, so I’ve clearly missed the point and just need to read it.
Until this collection, I’ve never thought about it how Virginia Woolf’s novels are perfect for radio drama. Listening to these seven, it highlighted (and reminded me) how well interior dialogue works on radio – I think much better than for the screen. So, all en all, this is a really neat collection, and I wish I’d come across it sooner.
The Waves in comparison was sober in tone, but I liked how the sounds affects were mixed and the story edited; as it cut between different characters and their memories (sometimes of the same moment). It was a wonderful audio experience, to not just be drawn into the drama by the words, but also the sounds, where I was made to feel I was going back and forth in time with the characters. Orlando also jumps in time but it didn’t make me feel the waves of time like this one did.
To the Voyage Out, Night and Day and Mrs Dalloway were enjoyable, where I thought out of the seven Night and Day is the plainest, but maybe I’m being unfair, I remember reading how Virginia Woolf was disappointed with the reception of her first novel To the Voyage Out and so toned down the need to experiment with language in Night and Day, her second novel, but found this was a disappointment to her family and friends, so when she wrote her third, Mrs Dalloway, she was once again trying to find expressions that captures the complex layers that exist between two people. So, Night and Day is a good adaptation, acting is brilliant – and as a story it works – but against the other six it came across as bland.
My least favourite was Between the Acts, like the all the others the focus was time, memories, many references to Shakespeare and a party. There were loads of characters, and maybe I didn’t enjoy it as much as I was losing trek of where I was and what was happening. The strongest impression this play left on me was it was quirky, and the camaraderie reminded me of a community theatre. When it ended I was left with the impression that not much happened – I know this can’t be true as this is Virginia Woolf, so I’ve clearly missed the point and just need to read it.
Until this collection, I’ve never thought about it how Virginia Woolf’s novels are perfect for radio drama. Listening to these seven, it highlighted (and reminded me) how well interior dialogue works on radio – I think much better than for the screen. So, all en all, this is a really neat collection, and I wish I’d come across it sooner.
October 8, 2020
Virginia Woolf stripped of all the beautiful language. I appreciate what was done in the collection, but it is the barest skeleton of the original. Granted, The Voyage Out, Night and Day, Orlando, and Mrs. Dalloway could be dramatized along the plot lines, but too much was being compacted into too little time. I had figured that To the Lighthouse, and The Waves were too complex to be dramatized and I was correct. I had hopes for Between the Acts which I feel is her most under-appreciated work. The radio play seemed to be set in the era of 1930s technology-- scratchy and with screechy music and dialog lost in the music.
Even in her most plot-based books, Woolf uses language as an art form, without the detailed prose her works seem to be missing a great deal. Even Mrs. Galloway does not open with the famous line -- Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself." Overall I am a bit disappointed by the collection. Perhaps it is better used by someone who is not a fan or looking for Cliff Notes of her work.
Even in her most plot-based books, Woolf uses language as an art form, without the detailed prose her works seem to be missing a great deal. Even Mrs. Galloway does not open with the famous line -- Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself." Overall I am a bit disappointed by the collection. Perhaps it is better used by someone who is not a fan or looking for Cliff Notes of her work.
January 13, 2025
I’ve never been able to finish The WAves or To the Lighthouse. Her stream of consciousness was too Much for me as a young person, but after listening to all these stories I have a much better understanding of her way of thinking. They are so beautiful, and they must be read again as real physical books. How delightful the reading of the Waves will be now or even Mes. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse. Each person’s feelings/emotions goes straight in, and the world seen from a young person’s view and later with each emotion in check and a critical view of society and how age changes this view. … so fascinating even today despite the outdated costumes and manners .
January 14, 2022
Great collection of her major works, very well rendered by groups of actors, and judiciously edited/abridged so that I didn't really realize what if anything was missing. If it seems to have taken me so long its because I alternated or even gave a few books between one and the next.
September 5, 2024
Impossibile to give Virginia Woolf less than three stars but these dramatisaions really were not very compelling. I quite enjoyed the Orlando (hard to make that boring!) but the rest just didn't keep or even get my attention. The books are better!!
March 8, 2025
Audiobook from PPL. To The Lighthouse was the best one for me. Didn’t like Orlando, moved on. Then didn’t complete. Could get it again and start with The Waves Episode I. (Only 3 episodes left. I completed and/or skipped 70%)
July 16, 2023
Magical, soul-stirring words brought even more vibrantly to life by wonderful performances
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews