WAVES
The waves is an incredible performance!!! Two hours and a half of thrill.
Wonderful use of text:
The way the text is read directly from the book makes its presence stronger. The presence of the words as they were written as Virginia Woolf intended for it to be read and one almost forgets the editing done for the play. The way it is read is dynamic, with one narrator speaking in a very propper English and actors reading for each different character a different voice.
Details:
The fragmentation which happens in space makes every detail, and the perception of details by each of our senses (hearing and seeing especially) very vivid. It is impressive the care given to detail. Once all these fragmented elements are brought together on the screen, through live filming which magnifies actions on the stage almost taking them out of context, it is as if one was watching a movie, and it is all so subtle that no words can describe it. It is perfect.
The end:
Once one leaves the theatre with such good impressions, with a mixture of feelings for the words, for the characters, for the recently lived experience and has to go to the tube on the way home, one has a very negative shock. You go in and hear once again "if you forget to touch in and out your oyster card you will pay the maximum cash fair" and once again and once again and one wishes to be back in the theatre seating and looking down at the empty black box which will soon be in use again for inspiring a new set of audiences, with new expectations, who might come out longing for the same words again.