0:00:25 > 0:00:28Tonight at Covent Garden, a collision of dance,
0:00:28 > 0:00:30literature, music and design
0:00:30 > 0:00:34as the life and writings of Virginia Woolf provide the inspiration
0:00:34 > 0:00:38for the Royal Ballet's resident choreographer Wayne McGregor.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41This production played to sell-out audiences
0:00:41 > 0:00:44in 2015 and went on to win McGregor
0:00:44 > 0:00:47both the Critics' Circle Award for Best Classical Choreography
0:00:47 > 0:00:50and the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production.
0:00:51 > 0:00:52Why Virginia Woolf?
0:00:52 > 0:00:56Well, I think she really reinvented the way in which you read a novel.
0:00:57 > 0:00:59Nobody writes quite like Woolf.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02Everything you see is vivid and heightened and full of colour
0:01:02 > 0:01:04and full of feeling.
0:01:04 > 0:01:06Language is really almost like a research tool for her
0:01:06 > 0:01:10to probe into what it means to be a person.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13The combination of the power in her work
0:01:13 > 0:01:19and the fragility in her humanity really touches me.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24Last year, Wayne celebrated his tenth anniversary
0:01:24 > 0:01:27as the resident choreographer at the Royal Ballet,
0:01:27 > 0:01:32a decade that has seen him create a diverse body of works.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35Virginia Woolf is one of our best-known English writers
0:01:35 > 0:01:38and an icon of modernism.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42She was born in 1882 into a privileged, intellectually curious
0:01:42 > 0:01:45yet essentially Victorian family,
0:01:45 > 0:01:47and strove in her work to find literary forms
0:01:47 > 0:01:51appropriate for the new realities of the 20th century,
0:01:51 > 0:01:55producing nine novels along with a raft of essays, journals
0:01:55 > 0:01:57and letters.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00Three of her novels are directly referenced tonight.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04The first part of the ballet, which Wayne has entitled I Now, I Then,
0:02:04 > 0:02:07invokes the themes and characters of Mrs Dalloway.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11In the second part, Becomings, Wayne draws on her novel Orlando,
0:02:11 > 0:02:15with its gender-fluid central character hurtling through time.
0:02:15 > 0:02:19And finally, in Tuesday, Woolf's novel The Waves is at the fore,
0:02:19 > 0:02:21a work about which she said,
0:02:21 > 0:02:25"I'm writing to a rhythm and not to a plot."
0:02:25 > 0:02:26Alongside the literary works,
0:02:26 > 0:02:30Wayne McGregor has also incorporated elements of Virginia Woolf's
0:02:30 > 0:02:33own life, from her thoughts on writing and language
0:02:33 > 0:02:36to her circle of friends and her lovers,
0:02:36 > 0:02:40as well as her struggles with mental illness,
0:02:40 > 0:02:45which culminated in her suicide by drowning at the age of 59.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48She absolutely loved dance, she loved music.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50She wanted to write as if she were writing music
0:02:50 > 0:02:52and as if she were kind of choreographing dance.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55And I just thought it would be a wonderful thing to try and
0:02:55 > 0:02:57reinterpret those, or translate those novels
0:02:57 > 0:02:59into something for the stage.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03It's an investigation into these texts, into her biography,
0:03:03 > 0:03:06into her life, via the medium of these disparate artforms, you know,
0:03:06 > 0:03:11music, dance, movement, video, scenography, costume, lighting.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15It's a wonderful investigation, a wonderful laboratory into that.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18We hear all this stuff about Virginia Woolf as being suicidal
0:03:18 > 0:03:21and mentally ill and tragic and all of these things but, actually,
0:03:21 > 0:03:24when she was talking about writing and she was talking about her work,
0:03:24 > 0:03:26she knew what she was doing.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29All the dance really should happen here on these pages. It's just
0:03:29 > 0:03:32that actually it's how you get there.
0:03:32 > 0:03:34We had to boil the three novels right down to what we felt
0:03:34 > 0:03:36was their essence,
0:03:36 > 0:03:40and amplify everything that needed to be there to convey that feeling
0:03:40 > 0:03:43in the most direct, immediate and pure kind of way.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49Mrs Dalloway is a beautiful story about people.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52It's about human relationships.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56It's a woven textured story which is full of imagination and pain
0:03:56 > 0:03:57and beauty.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03Orlando is this romp through 300 years of history,
0:04:03 > 0:04:07and as Woolf was super interested in science fiction, in astronomy
0:04:07 > 0:04:11and things other, it's really suited my kind of alien aesthetic.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16And then the third piece, The Waves, is partly her letters and biography
0:04:16 > 0:04:20colliding with this phenomenal story about growing older
0:04:20 > 0:04:22and letting go, in a way.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29I think we first had the idea for the Woolf project around 2012.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32In our case, we were into the studio in 2015.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35'On the very first day when we went into Woolf Works,
0:04:35 > 0:04:37'it was more of a workshop environment'
0:04:37 > 0:04:41and we were just exploring movement, space,
0:04:41 > 0:04:43'the music.'
0:04:43 > 0:04:44'I find it freeing.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48'I find it wonderful to have something made for you.'
0:04:48 > 0:04:53I'm sure it's like getting something tailored specifically for you.
0:04:53 > 0:04:59Wayne's language, and Wayne's way of connecting a movement to music,
0:04:59 > 0:05:03it has a unique grammar. It's very, very exciting
0:05:03 > 0:05:08to sort of witness how he then interprets what's going on.
0:05:08 > 0:05:10- That's always very striking. - That movement.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13Then, yeah, if you could just work out your alignments quicker
0:05:13 > 0:05:15so you can get through a little bit quicker, I think that
0:05:15 > 0:05:16would be really good, yeah.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19He's extremely particular about what he wants.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21He likes you to explore your characters.
0:05:21 > 0:05:25He likes you to explore the movement to its maximum.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29He knows exactly in what direction's everybody's going in,
0:05:29 > 0:05:32and is a master on knowing the shapes
0:05:32 > 0:05:35and the patterns of what he wants on stage.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38He loves the fact that everybody just embraces the space.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43'What I love to see is offering something to an amazing dancer,
0:05:43 > 0:05:46'them to give me something back and me to recognise'
0:05:46 > 0:05:48that I could never have thought of that on my own.
0:05:48 > 0:05:50'That's why casting is really important.'
0:05:52 > 0:05:57He said to me, "I need soul. I need the soul of Virginia Woolf."
0:05:58 > 0:06:04'I realised that I really could work with this man, who comes from a very
0:06:04 > 0:06:08'different environment, different world of dance than I was used to.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11'We could develop a connection,'
0:06:11 > 0:06:15if he approached the work with a soul in mind.
0:06:16 > 0:06:21'Mrs Dalloway was my age, she was a woman in her 50s.
0:06:21 > 0:06:24'But then in her memory, she was a teenager.'
0:06:24 > 0:06:26But so am I! And so is everyone.
0:06:26 > 0:06:31You know, we all have our life inside of us.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36'Woolf is never just one thing, and actually
0:06:36 > 0:06:39'if she had the possibilities that we have of staging, for example,
0:06:39 > 0:06:42'having multiple characters on stage at the same time,
0:06:42 > 0:06:45'being able to look into different people's psychological reality'
0:06:45 > 0:06:48at the same time, would she be doing one story?
0:06:48 > 0:06:50Or would she rather not be doing something that is far less
0:06:50 > 0:06:53story-led, and much more about finding different voices
0:06:53 > 0:06:56and giving different experiences?
0:06:56 > 0:06:59When I read Woolf, that's what I get over and over again -
0:06:59 > 0:07:02her absolute brilliance about being able to describe
0:07:02 > 0:07:05and to hold on to this really varied and multidimensional lives
0:07:05 > 0:07:07that we all lead.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22Well, the ballet starts with the only surviving recording
0:07:22 > 0:07:24of the voice of Virginia Woolf.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27We glimpse Woolf the writer before she disappears
0:07:27 > 0:07:31among her characters, and the themes of Mrs Dalloway come to life.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55VOICE OF VIRGINIA WOOLF: 'Words, English words, are full of echoes,
0:07:55 > 0:07:59'memories, of associations, naturally.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02'They've been out and about, on people's lips,
0:08:02 > 0:08:07'in their houses, in the streets, in the fields, for so many centuries.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11'And that is one of the chief difficulties in writing them today.
0:08:11 > 0:08:16'They are stored with other meanings, with other memories,
0:08:16 > 0:08:21'and they have contracted so many famous marriages in the past.
0:08:21 > 0:08:26'The splendid word "incarnadine," for example. Who can use that
0:08:26 > 0:08:30'without remembering "multitudinous seas"?
0:08:31 > 0:08:35'In the old days, of course, when English was a new language,
0:08:35 > 0:08:39'writers could invent new words and use them.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42'Nowadays, it's easy enough to invent new words.
0:08:42 > 0:08:46'They spring to the lips whenever we see a new sight
0:08:46 > 0:08:48'or feel a new sensation.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52'But we cannot use them because the English language is old.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57'You cannot use a brand-new word in an old language
0:08:57 > 0:09:02'because of the very obvious yet always mysterious fact
0:09:02 > 0:09:04'that a word is not a single and separate entity.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06'It is part of other words.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11'Indeed, it is not a word until it is part of a sentence.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15'Words belong to each other, although, of course,
0:09:15 > 0:09:18'only a great writer knows that the word "incarnadine"
0:09:18 > 0:09:20'belongs to "multitudinous seas"...'
0:09:20 > 0:09:23MUSIC
0:17:29 > 0:17:35CLOCK STRIKES
0:33:02 > 0:33:06HORSE AND CART
0:33:19 > 0:33:22CLOCK TICKS
0:33:27 > 0:33:30HORSE AND CART CONTINUES
0:33:48 > 0:33:53CHATTING AND LAUGHTER
0:34:14 > 0:34:18CLOCK TICKS
0:34:58 > 0:35:03SOUNDS CRESCENDO THEN STOP
0:35:05 > 0:35:09MUSIC
0:41:32 > 0:41:36APPLAUSE
0:41:43 > 0:41:45I Now, I Then,
0:41:45 > 0:41:48part one of Woolf Works from the Royal Opera House in London.
0:41:49 > 0:41:53Last year Wayne McGregor celebrated his tenth anniversary
0:41:53 > 0:41:56as the resident choreographer at the Royal Ballet.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59Over that time he has created a huge body of work
0:41:59 > 0:42:02and collaborated with a genuinely dazzling array of people
0:42:02 > 0:42:06from neuroscientists to novelists, architects to animators.
0:42:06 > 0:42:09And I'm very pleased to welcome him.
0:42:09 > 0:42:13- Wayne, thank you for coming to join us.- Hello.- It's extraordinary.
0:42:13 > 0:42:15- I can't believe ten years has passed.- I know, so fast.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18Oh, what is it about the Royal Ballet dancers that keep
0:42:18 > 0:42:21- inspiring you? - Well, they're just incredible.
0:42:21 > 0:42:23I mean, everybody has their own kind of physical signature,
0:42:23 > 0:42:25their own handwriting.
0:42:25 > 0:42:27But these dancers have just got such phenomenal technique
0:42:27 > 0:42:29and emotional intensity,
0:42:29 > 0:42:33and, you know, increasingly amazing imaginative and creative skills.
0:42:33 > 0:42:35And it's just a pleasure to work with them every day.
0:42:35 > 0:42:37And the dancers are very willing, as well, aren't they?
0:42:37 > 0:42:39So willing, they're so open, yeah.
0:42:39 > 0:42:42And also when we're making, we're coauthoring material.
0:42:42 > 0:42:44It's not just, I'm standing at the front telling dancers what to do.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47We're really working on projects together,
0:42:47 > 0:42:49and over these last ten years we've really developed
0:42:49 > 0:42:51a kind of a shorthand with many of those dancers.
0:42:51 > 0:42:53And then you see all this young generation who are even more
0:42:53 > 0:42:58technical, have even more kind of creative ideas, all raring to go.
0:42:58 > 0:43:00Yeah, it's really wonderful.
0:43:00 > 0:43:03So you do give quite a lot of material
0:43:03 > 0:43:05- to the dancers to work with. - I do, yeah.
0:43:05 > 0:43:08Your process is fascinating, cos I have seen you in action.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10I think it's partly something to do, first of all,
0:43:10 > 0:43:13with the quick transaction of energy. If I provoke you
0:43:13 > 0:43:15and you move in a particular way, something happens.
0:43:15 > 0:43:19I love to do that. Sometimes I might come in and make something with my own body
0:43:19 > 0:43:21and give it to a dancer. Sometimes I might work with
0:43:21 > 0:43:23the two of you here, and try and construct something...
0:43:23 > 0:43:26- That'd be the dream!- ..and construct something together...- Please!
0:43:26 > 0:43:30..and sometimes I just set an idea off and we all work it out together.
0:43:30 > 0:43:34We ask a question of the body, and the body kind of solves a problem,
0:43:34 > 0:43:37and something interesting comes out. It's those combinations of things.
0:43:37 > 0:43:39Choreographers work in so many different ways.
0:43:39 > 0:43:42That's the wonderful thing about being a choreographer -
0:43:42 > 0:43:45is difference, is this idea of everybody finding
0:43:45 > 0:43:46their own kind of physical way
0:43:46 > 0:43:50of inspiring others and inspiring themselves,
0:43:50 > 0:43:53and I think that diversity in dance is really incredible.
0:43:53 > 0:43:54I love being part of that.
0:43:54 > 0:43:57One of the wonderful things about this ballet is that it gives a sense
0:43:57 > 0:43:59of the sheer range of your choreography. Very briefly,
0:43:59 > 0:44:02if you may, would you just tell us something
0:44:02 > 0:44:03to look out for in the next act?
0:44:03 > 0:44:06Well, I guess this next act is more a kind of a rollercoaster
0:44:06 > 0:44:09of physicality, so the job here in a way is to push the body to do things
0:44:09 > 0:44:12that have never perhaps been done before, or at least to push them
0:44:12 > 0:44:15in a way that is really kind of extraordinary.
0:44:15 > 0:44:18The body is misbehaving. And I love that,
0:44:18 > 0:44:21because in so many ways Virginia Woolf misbehaved.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24She didn't follow convention in writing,
0:44:24 > 0:44:27and this kind of trip through 300 years, you see it in a kind of...
0:44:27 > 0:44:30- ..a misbehaving way.- It's like an adrenaline bullet, really.
0:44:30 > 0:44:33Well, nobody delivers adrenaline bullets like Wayne McGregor.
0:44:33 > 0:44:35Thank you so much for being with us and for this beautiful,
0:44:35 > 0:44:38- beautiful ballet.- Thanks. - Well, it's not long before
0:44:38 > 0:44:41we will be immersing ourselves in the world of Woolf Works again.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44The astonishing soundscape that the ballet occupies is,
0:44:44 > 0:44:47as we've just heard, the creation of the composer Max Richter.
0:44:47 > 0:44:49He's one of Wayne's long-time collaborators,
0:44:49 > 0:44:52and a few days ago he came into a studio here at Covent Garden
0:44:52 > 0:44:55to give us an insight into his compositional process.
0:44:58 > 0:45:00One of the most striking things about Virginia Woolf, I think,
0:45:00 > 0:45:03is her creative work is very sensory.
0:45:05 > 0:45:09It's about sound and texture and feeling and colour and tempo.
0:45:14 > 0:45:16There's something very inspiring about that, actually.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23The music, to begin with, with Miss Dalloway
0:45:23 > 0:45:27grows out of nothing. You have this very simple...
0:45:29 > 0:45:32..little fragment which grows...
0:45:35 > 0:45:36..over time...
0:45:41 > 0:45:45And it just turns into a continual line of quavers. Very asymmetrical.
0:45:45 > 0:45:50And then other musics at different speeds surround it.
0:45:50 > 0:45:52It's almost like pulling of focus.
0:45:55 > 0:45:59There is also a kind of a theme which is a very simple
0:45:59 > 0:46:03sort of long-note theme which actually comes over the top
0:46:03 > 0:46:05of this rippling line of quavers.
0:46:09 > 0:46:12It's a very, very simple, a sort of minimal little line
0:46:12 > 0:46:16which happens there, but also happens in different forms
0:46:16 > 0:46:18in different movements of the first act.
0:46:23 > 0:46:25It's sort of encountering something
0:46:25 > 0:46:28that you don't know where you've heard it. That's the idea of it.
0:46:28 > 0:46:32And I think that's really one of the magic aspects
0:46:32 > 0:46:36of the novel for me, this idea of meeting things across time.
0:46:41 > 0:46:44The second act of the ballet, I use a ground base.
0:46:44 > 0:46:47A ground base is a repeating baseline.
0:46:50 > 0:46:53In today's language we would call it a loop, but in fact it's a
0:46:53 > 0:46:57structural principle which goes back to the 16th century at least.
0:46:57 > 0:47:01Earlier, probably. La Folia is a very well-known example of that.
0:47:01 > 0:47:04It's this, everyone recognises...
0:47:04 > 0:47:06HE PLAYS LA FOLIA BY ARCANGELO CORELLI
0:47:13 > 0:47:16Yeah? So we all know that tune, don't we? So that's La Folia.
0:47:19 > 0:47:23And it struck me that the structure of Orlando,
0:47:23 > 0:47:26with this extraordinary journey spanning hundreds of years,
0:47:26 > 0:47:28changing gender, doing all sorts of travelling,
0:47:28 > 0:47:33themes of transformation, it really lent itself to a variation form.
0:47:35 > 0:47:38In the simplest Orlando variation, it's almost like
0:47:38 > 0:47:41sort of putting grit in the oyster to make the pearl.
0:47:41 > 0:47:45You know, so in that variation, this very simple...
0:47:50 > 0:47:52..becomes...
0:48:03 > 0:48:06So it's sort of right,
0:48:06 > 0:48:08but it's also sort of wrong.
0:48:13 > 0:48:15You know, for most of us that sort of...
0:48:15 > 0:48:17It makes you go... "Oh..."
0:48:17 > 0:48:20You know. Cos we know how it should go, but...
0:48:22 > 0:48:24..there's something a bit wrong with that.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27So it sort of invites participation.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33It's recognisable, but subtly altered.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36And that's really what's going on in Orlando a lot of the time.
0:48:39 > 0:48:42The music for Tuesday is all structured
0:48:42 > 0:48:45around the principle of a wave.
0:48:49 > 0:48:53We start with this...almost like an empty space.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56You know, it's just...
0:48:56 > 0:48:57moving very, very slowly.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02So that...is an up-down movement, you know?
0:49:02 > 0:49:06That's what it does, it goes up and down. It's like a wave.
0:49:06 > 0:49:09And then it's joined by a faster-moving line
0:49:09 > 0:49:11which also goes up and down.
0:49:14 > 0:49:15And then
0:49:15 > 0:49:18more and more density of waves moving up and down
0:49:18 > 0:49:20at different speeds.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23If we look in the score, we can see these things.
0:49:23 > 0:49:25Even visually, you can see it quite clearly.
0:49:25 > 0:49:27There's that sort of wave movement.
0:49:32 > 0:49:35If we imagine that...stave there...
0:49:38 > 0:49:42You've got this very high line doing this
0:49:42 > 0:49:43quite slowly...
0:49:44 > 0:49:46..like that.
0:49:46 > 0:49:47And then the next line...
0:49:49 > 0:49:50..is sort of like this.
0:49:54 > 0:49:58And then more density and more speed...
0:50:00 > 0:50:04..is built up while the music sort of develops.
0:50:05 > 0:50:09So you get all these interference patterns, and all of this
0:50:09 > 0:50:14is underpinned with this big ground base
0:50:14 > 0:50:16which is a sort of...
0:50:16 > 0:50:19It's almost a sort of cosmic background radiation
0:50:19 > 0:50:24which holds the harmonic field of this really large, long extended
0:50:24 > 0:50:29piece together in a way which hopefully feels inevitable.
0:50:29 > 0:50:31That's really what I'm looking for.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39Now, the second part of the ballet is called Becomings,
0:50:39 > 0:50:42and it's Wayne McGregor's response to the novel Orlando,
0:50:42 > 0:50:46first published in 1928 when it caused a huge scandal.
0:50:46 > 0:50:48The book, subtitled A Biography,
0:50:48 > 0:50:52features a protagonist who changes sex from man to woman
0:50:52 > 0:50:55and travels through three centuries of English history.
0:50:55 > 0:50:59Becomings features designs by the architectural practice We Not I,
0:50:59 > 0:51:01with costumes by Moritz Junge
0:51:01 > 0:51:03and lighting and lasers by Lucy Carter,
0:51:03 > 0:51:06which we should probably warn you does create some strobe effects.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09It's time now to head to the auditorium for Becomings,
0:51:09 > 0:51:13the second part of Wayne McGregor's Woolf Works.
0:51:46 > 0:51:50MUSIC
0:51:56 > 0:52:01PEN SCRATCHES ON PAPER
0:52:20 > 0:52:22SCRATCHING CONTINUES
1:27:03 > 1:27:07CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
1:27:18 > 1:27:20Becomings,
1:27:20 > 1:27:23part two of Wayne McGregor's Woolf Works from the Royal Opera House.
1:27:23 > 1:27:25Well, wasn't that extraordinary?
1:27:25 > 1:27:28- I mean, you heard the response there from the audience.- Yes!
1:27:28 > 1:27:31Well, after that, the final part of Wayne McGregor's Woolf Works,
1:27:31 > 1:27:35Tuesday, takes its inspiration from Virginia Woolf's eighth novel,
1:27:35 > 1:27:38The Waves, which she described as a play poem.
1:27:38 > 1:27:41It follows the lives of six characters in parallel
1:27:41 > 1:27:43from childhood through to old age.
1:27:43 > 1:27:47Tuesday also features elements of Virginia Woolf's own biography
1:27:47 > 1:27:51set against a vast video projection by Ravi Deepres.
1:27:51 > 1:27:54We're going to hear something really special now -
1:27:54 > 1:27:56some of Virginia Woolf's writing in a series of extracts
1:27:56 > 1:27:58from her poetic novel The Waves
1:27:58 > 1:28:02and from her autobiographical fragment Sketch Of The Past.
1:28:02 > 1:28:06The selections were made by dramaturg Uzma Hameed
1:28:06 > 1:28:10and are read here for us by the one and only Maggie Smith.
1:28:12 > 1:28:16If life has a base that it stands upon,
1:28:16 > 1:28:21if it is a bowl that one fills and fills and fills,
1:28:21 > 1:28:26then my bowl, without a doubt, stands upon this memory.
1:28:27 > 1:28:32It is of lying half asleep, half awake...
1:28:33 > 1:28:36..in a bed in the nursery at St Ives.
1:28:37 > 1:28:41It is of hearing the waves breaking,
1:28:41 > 1:28:45one, two...one, two...
1:28:46 > 1:28:50..and sending a splash of water over the beach.
1:28:52 > 1:28:54And then breaking...
1:28:54 > 1:28:58one, two...one, two...
1:29:00 > 1:29:02..behind a yellow blind.
1:29:04 > 1:29:08It is of hearing the blind draw its little acorn
1:29:08 > 1:29:12across the floor as the wind blew the blind out.
1:29:14 > 1:29:20It is of lying and hearing this splash and seeing this light...
1:29:22 > 1:29:28..and feeling it is almost impossible that I should be here,
1:29:28 > 1:29:33of feeling the purist ecstasy I can conceive.
1:29:35 > 1:29:38We launch out now over the precipice.
1:29:40 > 1:29:44Beneath us by the lights of the herring fleet,
1:29:44 > 1:29:47the cliffs vanish...
1:29:47 > 1:29:51rippling small, rippling grey, innumerable waves
1:29:51 > 1:29:52spread underneath us.
1:29:54 > 1:29:57I touch nothing.
1:29:57 > 1:29:59I see nothing.
1:30:00 > 1:30:03We may sink and settle on the waves.
1:30:04 > 1:30:06The sea will drum in my ears.
1:30:07 > 1:30:11The white petals will be darkened with sea water.
1:30:13 > 1:30:16They will float for a moment and then sink.
1:30:18 > 1:30:23Rolling me over the waves will shoulder me under.
1:30:24 > 1:30:30Everything falls in a tremendous shower, dissolving me.
1:31:30 > 1:31:32"Tuesday.
1:31:36 > 1:31:39"Dearest...
1:31:41 > 1:31:43"..I feel certain that I'm going mad again.
1:31:46 > 1:31:49"I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times.
1:31:51 > 1:31:53"And I shan't recover this time.
1:31:55 > 1:31:56"I begin to hear voices...
1:31:58 > 1:31:59"..and I can't concentrate.
1:32:05 > 1:32:08"So I am doing what seems the best thing to do.
1:32:11 > 1:32:15"You have given me the greatest possible happiness.
1:32:17 > 1:32:21"You have been in every way all that anyone could be.
1:32:25 > 1:32:27"I don't think two people could have been happier...
1:32:29 > 1:32:31"..till this terrible disease came.
1:32:35 > 1:32:37"I can't fight any longer.
1:32:41 > 1:32:43"I know that I am spoiling your life.
1:32:45 > 1:32:47"But without me, you could work.
1:32:50 > 1:32:52"And you will, I know.
1:32:56 > 1:32:58"You see, I can't even write this properly.
1:33:01 > 1:33:03"I can't read.
1:33:10 > 1:33:15"What I want to say is, I owe all the happiness of my life to you.
1:33:18 > 1:33:24"You have been entirely patient with me, and incredibly good.
1:33:27 > 1:33:28"I want to say that.
1:33:30 > 1:33:31"Everybody knows it.
1:33:36 > 1:33:41"If anybody could have saved me, it would have been you.
1:33:47 > 1:33:52"Everything has gone for me but the certainty of your goodness.
1:33:57 > 1:34:01"I can't go on spoiling your life any longer.
1:34:04 > 1:34:08"I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been.
1:34:18 > 1:34:20"V."
1:34:20 > 1:34:24MUSIC
1:55:18 > 1:55:24APPLAUSE
1:55:31 > 1:55:34CHEERING
1:56:03 > 1:56:07APPLAUSE AND CHEERING CONTINUE THROUGHOUT CURTAIN CALL