and the way this production approached that was to have her character facing the audience directly and telling her story to them, punctuated by other actors entering and merging into scenes with her when she begins describing what other people said and did - at which points she turns and interacts with them instead.

I like that a lot. It sounds a little like the collective narration used in the RSC's The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, which allowed for a similar mix of original text and dialogue.