The set was more than a tad too monochrome for my liking, and purely based on what one could see, every scene was in non-specific every-place. But an almost totally unremarkable set works for a play so descriptive that ultimately, nothing is left to the imagination. I can understand anyone seeing this show concluding that it relies too much on exposition as a narrative device. But it does so because the source material, a 1931 novel, also does so, although the descriptions form part of a free-flowing, stream of consciousness style of storytelling.
I don’t mind admitting I struggled with the novel to begin with, and it took this production for me to understand better how certain characters’ thought processes should be interpreted. Whilst reading the book, I rolled my eyes with frustration when people declared themselves to be people, places and things they couldn’t possibly be. The press night audience largely chortled whenever someone said something ridiculous, presumably taking their words at face value. It’s still not my sense of humour, and in this day and age, not taking seriously enough that somebody identifies as someone or something could potentially land you in trouble. Contemporary lenses aside, the imaginations of the characters are, for the most part, very active, which makes for some intriguing statements about their dreams and ambitions, and when this longitudinal play that spans several decades in ninety minutes without an interval reaches its closing moments, their reflections on how things turned out in the end.
The characters are all more than sufficiently different to make them easily distinct – some love being in London, for instance, whilst others prefer being anywhere else. The storyline seemed credible up to a point, with the group starting off as children and then drifting apart as time goes on. There are, as readers who have read the novel will know, seven characters rather than six (well, there are many more if parents, teachers and eventually spouses and children are included in your tally), with the seventh person, not named in the character list for the play so I won’t break confidence, given the opportunity (not afforded to them in the book) to speak for themselves. But I would have thought there would have been more dramatic tension between the characters in what is very much an ensemble piece of theatre. The production held my attention, and I suppose the sheer amount of civility the characters enjoyed was in some ways refreshing to see.
The play gives space and validity to a wide range of opinions and outlooks on life. It is not always an easy watch, tackling as it does a bereavement in the prime of the characters’ lives, one of whom struggles to come to terms with it even as their firstborn has just arrived. Reflective of the realities of life, the world keeps on turning. This briskly paced production may come across as very wordy at times but for those who appreciate the novel, it’s an engaging and worthy adaptation of it.
Review by Chris Omaweng
But here and now we are together.
Rhoda. Bernard. Susan. Neville. Jinny. Louis.
They begin by the coast. Then, school. Youth. Forming. Swelling. Terror. Joy. Working. Falling. Fame. Grief. Alone. Together.
Archie Backhouse – Louis
Breffni Holahan – Susan
Pedro Leandro – Neville
Syakira Moeladi – Jinny
Tom Varey – Bernard
Ria Zmitrowicz – Rhoda
Virginia Woolf – Writer
Júlia Levai – Director
Flora Wilson Brown – Adaptor
Tomás Palmer – Set Designer
Anett Black – Costume Designer
Lucía Sánchez Roldán – Lighting Designer
Matthew Tuckey – Composer & Sound Designer
Ken Nakajima – Movement Director
Jatinder Chera – Casting Director
Haruka Kuroda – Intimacy Director
Charlotte Rogers – Assistant Director
Mary Howland – Accent Coach
THE WAVES
Jermyn Street Theatre
16 April to 23 May 2026
