The Dreadnought hoax reactivated
When making her famous pronouncement that in or about December, 1910, human character changed, in the seminal essay Mr Bennet and Mrs Brown, Virginia Woolf might have meant three events: the death of Edward VII whose reign ceased in May that year, the first Post-Impressionistic exhibition that opened in London around the time or the Dreadnaught Hoax which is considered one of the most notorious happenings organized by the members of the Bloomsbury set.
If we were to opt for the third of the occurrences, then the practical joke performed by Woolf and her collaborators would become one of the most important turning points of the late Victorian era, which, of course, at least by some might be regarded as a far-fetched assumption. Regardless of our subjective choices, one thing is certain: by being deeply involved in the hoax, Virginia Woolf revealed her unknown jocular face.
On February 10, 1910, Woolf, her brother Adrian
Stephen, Anthony Buxton, Horace Cole, Duncan Grant and Guy Ridley took a train
to
The exhibition "British Bohemia. The Bloomsbury Circle of Virginia Woolf" organized
by International Cultural Centre in Kraków in 2010/11, was an ideal opportunity
for Marek and his students to reactivate the hoax in its contemporary
version. The event under the title of "The
Dreadnought Hoax Reactivated" took place in the premises of the Jan
Noworolski’s café in Sukiennice, Rynek Główny