From the novel by Virginia Woolf *****
Adaptation by Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Stella Powell-Jones.
This is a well thought out adaptation of the most enchanting pseudo biographical novel by Virginia Woolf of an imaginary young man with the Romantic name of Orlando. . She wrote this as a joke descrribing it as “a writer’s holiday”, making fun of her lover Vita Sackville West’s enormously aristocratic background. She begins it during the reign of Elizabeth the First and the young man is living in his house of 365 rooms. During this episode he fascinates the Queen herself and becomes her lover.
The young man remains the age of 35 all during the centuries which he lives right up to the 1920s. Taking on the clothes and attitudes of the different centuries.
He lives an aristocratic life of sex and luxury right until the Victorian Age when, after a long sleep, he wakes up as a Victorian woman, with all the restrictions and inhibitions expected of the upper class female. She marries because she feels she has to.
Happily, she enters the twentieth century with a flourish and finds that the whole world has changed by being a woman, not only the clothes are different, also the attitudes of people around her. Even the beloved Sasha returns in her life this time as a man, just as the tiresome woman who drove him wild during the Regency period turns out to be just as tiresome as a man.
Orlando is played in this production by a delightful redhead Taylor McClaine, a girl who easily convinces as a boy and man, just as the one she loves, Sasha , the Russian Princess, played by Skye Hallam. becomes a man in the present day.
The authorial voice is played by three people, billed as the Chorus. Tigger Blaize who also inhabits the soul of Elizabeth the first. Rosalind Lainley and Stanton Wright who fill in all the other characters and keep Orlando dressed in the clothes suitable for each century.
Ceci Calf designed the setting which resembles a child’s toy theatre giving the feeling of make believe right from the beginning. The clothes provided for the hero/heroine at various times during the centuries are shown to the audience, pinned up on the backcloth where they are collected by the chorus members when required..
It is a very clear adaptation of the book, a series of comedy scenes, but I wonder whether it is well enough appreciated by some of the audience, who take it rather seriously as a classic novel. Occasionally I felt rather embarrassed to laugh.
There was a popular movie of the story with Orlando played by Tilds Swinton and the Queen by Quentin Crisp. Something I’ve always wanted to see, but have sadly not been able to catch up with it
This is a lovely show, well directed by Stella Powell-Jones.
alinewaitesreviews.co.uk
Adaptation by Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Stella Powell-Jones.
This is a well thought out adaptation of the most enchanting pseudo biographical novel by Virginia Woolf of an imaginary young man with the Romantic name of Orlando. . She wrote this as a joke descrribing it as “a writer’s holiday”, making fun of her lover Vita Sackville West’s enormously aristocratic background. She begins it during the reign of Elizabeth the First and the young man is living in his house of 365 rooms. During this episode he fascinates the Queen herself and becomes her lover.
The young man remains the age of 35 all during the centuries which he lives right up to the 1920s. Taking on the clothes and attitudes of the different centuries.
He lives an aristocratic life of sex and luxury right until the Victorian Age when, after a long sleep, he wakes up as a Victorian woman, with all the restrictions and inhibitions expected of the upper class female. She marries because she feels she has to.
Happily, she enters the twentieth century with a flourish and finds that the whole world has changed by being a woman, not only the clothes are different, also the attitudes of people around her. Even the beloved Sasha returns in her life this time as a man, just as the tiresome woman who drove him wild during the Regency period turns out to be just as tiresome as a man.
Orlando is played in this production by a delightful redhead Taylor McClaine, a girl who easily convinces as a boy and man, just as the one she loves, Sasha , the Russian Princess, played by Skye Hallam. becomes a man in the present day.
The authorial voice is played by three people, billed as the Chorus. Tigger Blaize who also inhabits the soul of Elizabeth the first. Rosalind Lainley and Stanton Wright who fill in all the other characters and keep Orlando dressed in the clothes suitable for each century.
Ceci Calf designed the setting which resembles a child’s toy theatre giving the feeling of make believe right from the beginning. The clothes provided for the hero/heroine at various times during the centuries are shown to the audience, pinned up on the backcloth where they are collected by the chorus members when required..
It is a very clear adaptation of the book, a series of comedy scenes, but I wonder whether it is well enough appreciated by some of the audience, who take it rather seriously as a classic novel. Occasionally I felt rather embarrassed to laugh.
There was a popular movie of the story with Orlando played by Tilds Swinton and the Queen by Quentin Crisp. Something I’ve always wanted to see, but have sadly not been able to catch up with it
This is a lovely show, well directed by Stella Powell-Jones.
alinewaitesreviews.co.uk
pyekan 