Virginia Woolf in Alfriston 2026! Study 2 - Between the Acts
Event Details
This will be our fourth year offering opportunities to read Virginia Woolf in East Sussex, a county which in many ways became the writer’s spiritual home and where we can consider her work surrounded by some of the countryside she loved best. In 2026 we will have two long weekend studies in Alfriston, the first (9-12 April) focusing on her 1933 ‘biography’ of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s cocker spaniel Flush, together with her only play, Freshwater (1935); the second (16-19 April) exploring her 1941 novel Between the Acts.
As one of the key members of the celebrated Bloomsbury Group, Woolf is often seen as a London writer, but she and her husband Leonard had an abiding love for the South Downs. Together they purchased Monk’s House near Rodmell in 1919 and used it as their writer’s retreat. Virginia wrote some of her major works there and the Sussex landscape was integral to her writing as she tried to capture what she saw as its unsurpassable beauty. There are a number of other Bloomsbury outposts in the area: in 1916 Virginia’s sister, Vanessa Bell, moved to Charleston Farmhouse with the painter Duncan Grant, while John Maynard Keynes and his wife Lydia Lopokova also settled locally.
“Here came the sun—an illimitable rapture of joy, embracing every flower, every leaf. Then in compassion it withdrew, covering its face, as if it forbore to look on human suffering. There was a fecklessness, a lack of symmetry and order in the clouds, as they thinned and thickened. Was it their own law, or no law they obeyed?”
Virginia Woolf, Between the Acts
In this novel Virginia Woolf’s lyric prose and gorgeous vision combine to consider the sense of exhaustion that punctuated the Modernist period leading up to the Second World War. According to Edward Mendelson: “Everything comes to an end in Between the Acts, and then, as the book itself comes to an end, something unknowable begins.” The book includes a pageant composed of imaginary episodes from 1,000 years of English history, together with a close examination of the intricacies of village life in England in the days leading up to World War II. As always, it is Woolf’s penetrating consideration of intimate relationships and the places where language fails — but something else transcends — that lift this work from “the doom of sudden death hanging over us” that one of her characters describes.
“She wanted to expose them, as it were, to douche them, with present-time reality. But something was going wrong with the experiment. ‘Reality too strong,’ she muttered. ‘Curse ‘em!’ She felt everything they felt. Audiences were the devil. O to write a play without an audience – the play”
Between the Acts
Miss La Trobe – passionate, demanding, visionary and frustrated playwright/director/producer of the pageant – yearns to have the self-satisfied people of the village and the great homes see themselves for what they are. She believes – as I believe – that art can illuminate people to themselves, make them grasp the history that precedes them, understand the contemporary moment in light of that history and drive out complacency, make the audience feel the horrors and the miracle of the world they occupy. The book is filled with moments of passion exploding, of submerged violence, of desires frustrated.
The setting of Between the Acts ‘somewhere in the south of England’ at Pointz Hall, could be a village very much like Alfriston. Among the possible activities we will include for our retreat may be a pageant of our own: how might we construct a mirror to ourselves—a historical enactment of the phases of progress and stagnation that have brought us to this moment in time? We will consider closely how Between the Acts uses the particularities of the setting -Pointz Hall, the surrounding countryside, unpredictable weather, the cultivated and wild spaces – to reflect how the backdrop of our daily performance of living impacts and sets the rhythm for our habits and encounters.
JOINING DETAILS:
- To ask questions please email us at litsalon@gmail.com using ‘Between the Acts 2026’ as the subject line. To reserve a place please use the form below to pay an initial deposit of £50. Full payment may be made later by bank transfer.
- Four-day in-person study facilitated by Toby Brothers and Karina Jakubowicz
- Thursday 16 – Sunday 19 April 2026, Alfriston, East Sussex
- This is an opportunity to enjoy the locale, including visiting Charleston House, Charleston in Lewes and Monk’s House, as well as joining with other readers in discussing Between the Acts and its relationship to Woolf’s other works. We will also research outings in the area based on exhibits that will be available at the time of our visit, these will be added to the schedule as we confirm the best options.
- As in previous years, we are in conversation with our fellow enthusiasts at Much Ado Books in Alfriston, who have created a great community that celebrates reading and the art of books in wonderful ways. Together we will offer an event celebrating Woolf and Between the Acts during our stay there.
- £500 for twelve hours (or more) of study in six meetings spread over four days, plus accommodation costs (please see details below).
- Please note that participants are responsible for booking their own travel, accommodation and any insurance required.
- We will stay at Wingrove House, a 19th century colonial-style country house hotel set in the beautiful and historic village of Alfriston, East Sussex in the South Downs National Park. We will be within easy reach of sites associated with Bloomsbury, making it the ideal choice for Woolf-related Salons. We expect the cost per night, including breakfast, to start at £206.00 per room, rising to a maximum of £244.50 (charges vary across a range of accommodation). These rates are discounted for London Literary Salon participants, so please reserve your room as soon as possible after registering for the study and mention the London Literary Salon when booking.
- Recommended edition: Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf, Oxford World’s Classics ISBN-13: 978-0199536573
