The clever title refers to Vanessa Bell, a key member of the Bloomsbury group of artists, writers and intellectuals in the early 20th century in London. This is an affectionate dramatic memoir of her sister, the eminent novelist and critic, Virginia Woolf, who committed suicide in 1941.
Set a few years later, she still misses her every day, ‘how can I live without the goat? .. your wit which lit up the room,’ she muses. Capturing the period, dressed in a pretty floral skirt, smock and headscarf, Vanessa stands at her easel preparing to paint a portrait of her sister, affectionately nicknamed The Goat as a child due to her mischievous nature. Carefully sketching the outline of her slender, elegant face. ‘I never did your beauty justice.’
Their bond was characterised by fierce love, intense rivalry, and a deep creative influence on each other's work. She recalls that Virginia admitted that she was jealous of her artistic talent. ‘Words are an impure medium,” Virginia Woolf wrote in an essay on Walter Sickert. “Better far to have been born into the silent kingdom of paint.”
Vanessa explains that she was not taught just to draw, but to see, while Virginia also used her eyes with different spectacles, to see the sea, breaking waves, not to paint but ‘to write freely like brushstrokes.’
Through amusing anecdotes, we learn about their early strict Victorian upbringing, idyllic holidays in St. Ives and the grief on the death of their parents. The sisters moved to Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, with their brothers, Adrian and Thoby, free from social rules and etiquette, embracing a liberal Bohemian lifestyle with artistic friends. They formed close, often complex, relationships, Vanessa marrying the bisexual Clive Bell - the Bloomsburies were said to live in squares and love in triangles.
As she recalls the inspirational times of the Post Impressionism shows in London – Picasso, Gauguin, Matisse – she carefully selects coral pink and azure from her palette to depict lips and jacket in Virginia’s delightful portrait. Fascinating to watch Kara Wilson dab her brush to perfect the eyes with a delicate touch.
On the stage too are a table, chair, cushion, tablecloth, all decorated by Kara in the style of Vanessa Bell’s vib vibrantly innovative Omega designs. Described in 1923 as 'the most important woman painter in Europe', Bell was a pioneering modernist.
For those with little knowledge of Bell and Woolf and their inspirational social circle, the peppering of names in the script – Lytton Strachey, Duncan Grant, Dora Carrington, Roger Fry, Quentin, David Garnett, Angelica – may be confusing. But for those who have read the novels, biographies, seen exhibitions*, or visited Charleston, (Vanessa and Clive’s former home in Sussex), this is an insightful, heart-warming and moving narrative.
Kara has written and performed in five 'painter plays', combining an informative, entertaining drama about an artist while painting one of their iconic works. Last year, ‘Beryl Cook, A Private View’ was ‘a gentle, charismatic portrait of the artist with delightful honesty, quiet emotion and satirical wit.’ Edinburgh Guide.
Once again, in 'Bloomsbury Bell', Kara Wilson illustrates her unique talent as a captivating storyteller as well as accomplished artist. In her letters and diaries, Virginia Woolf acknowledged Vanessa’s artistic sensibility to capture emotion and atmosphere in her paintings: she was a "poet...in colour".
Kara Wilson – actor, writer, artist, par excellence – ‘a poet in colour’ indeed.
Showtimes:
30th July – 24th August (not 11th, 18th) @13.45pm
Ticket prices £12 (£11)
Age guidance, 14+
https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/bloomsbury-bell
Kara Wilson was given permission by Jane Dunn to adapt her biography, “Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell: A Very Close Conspiracy” to write this play.
A major exhibition of Vanessa Bell's paintings and designs:
"Vanessa Bell: A World of Form and Colour", is at Charleston, Lewes until September 21, 2025. Accompanying catalogue published by Bloomsbury.