Woo Woolf: Channelling One’s Own Stream of Consciousness
- Elspeth Chan
- Nov 12, 2025
- 3 min read
As part of the Voila Theatre Festival 2025, Woo Woolf offers a vibrant exploration of identity, language, and memory. Directed by Xiaonan Wang and produced by Ensemble Not Found, the piece invites audiences into a fluid dreamscape shaped by the intersecting stories of three women, all named Mary. From the outset, the characters clarify that this is not about Virginia Woolf herself, but about the rhythmic currents of her stream-of-consciousness style that define both her writing and the structure of Woo Woolf.
This production unfolds against a wider backdrop of Hong Kong’s evolving cultural landscape marked by the recent opening of Xi Xi Space, a conservation project designed to honor the acclaimed writer Xi Xi by recreating her former residence and the atmosphere in which she composed her celebrated works. Coincidentally, Woo Woolf draws upon the reflection on the necessity of “a space of one’s own” for creative freedom, memory, and expression, and embodies diverse facets of womanhood through the three Marys:
The Oracle Mary (Francesca Marcolina) seeks guidance from the mysterious “Big Sister”, whose responses often feel superficial and commercialized. Vulnerable when disconnected, Oracle Mary’s plight symbolizes the struggle for meaningful support.
The Translator Mary (Chien-Hui Yen) is a multi-lingual communication assistant with an unshakable faith in language and poetry in offering hope. Her bathroom sanctuary is a place to breathe and write, while she observes the shifting shapes of passersby through the window.
The Dancer Mary (Wency Lam) enjoys cooking with available ingredients, finding calm in the kitchen. Her refusal to wear shoes speaks to a desire to resist grounding in social expectation. Her disoriented movements and 49 dreams a night reveal anxiety. Easily overwhelmed by loud, jarring sounds.
The play’s multi-lingual/cultural fabric sparkles with playful language moments: the comical confusion of “bathtub” and “bastard,” “Mary” and “married.” Such linguistic twists capture the migrant experience of translation and miscommunication with humor and insight.
A striking scene visualizes womanhood and reproductive pain: Oracle Mary, in agony, seeks solace, but the “Big Sister” merely suggests having a baby. The trio performance of pulling a coiled red silk cloth from Oracle Mary’s belly alludes to the umbilical cord, with baby cries echoing ominously. The image questions whether childbirth is a hopeful new beginning or a social constraint imposed on women.
While female perspectives predominate, the work transcends feminism. Oracle Mary’s question, “Must I be a woman?” is rooted in the female suffering but also suggests a deeper quest for identity beyond gender. The watery flowing sleeves often seen in Chinese dance on stage evoke a balance of yin (feminine) and yang (masculine) qualities, symbolizing fluidity and universal human qualities beyond cultural symbolism. Translator Mary’s quest for a “space of her own” and her plea for peace extend the reflection from gendered experience to more collective human suffering. This widening of perspective is underscored by projected lines from poets such as William Wordsworth, whose verses mourn the struggles and enduring pain experienced by creative spirits.
The piece’s fragmented structure suits its devising nature, though some gaps, like the meaning behind the frequent bomb sounds terrifying Dancer Mary, may elude audiences without contextual clues. These sounds likely metaphorize the interruptions women face in creativity and daily life, echoing Woolf’s ideas of societal distractions. The surreal near-death experience recited by Dancer Mary offers poetic flow but leaves room for further audience reflection.
Woo Woolf echoes the spirit of the newly inaugurated Xi Xi Space, inviting reflection on the significance of “a space of one’s own”. Whether physical or mental, such sanctuaries remain essential for fostering creativity, identity, and expression, continuing the dialogue Woolf began over a century ago and the legacy Xi Xi cherished in her vivid literary portrayal of her city’s evolving cityscape.
