It’s hard to believe this play is adapted from a novel that’s almost 100 years old, set in the 300 years before that. Given the topicality of gender fluidity it feels bang up-to-date. Great timing.
Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s relationship with Vita Sackville-West, it’s been adapted before as a film (with Tilda Swinton) and as a solo stage performance, but I think this is the first fully formed play. It brings adapter Neil Bartlett and director Michael Grandage back to our stages after a few years away, and pairs relative newcomer Emma Corrin with stage veteran Deborah Findlay.
It starts at the end of the sixteenth century, when the teenage Orlando is a page to Elizabeth I, and sweeps through the next twenty years of his life across three centuries and two countries during which time they change sex more than once and encounter a whole host of historical and literary characters. Its feminist perspective just a decade after women first voted was way ahead of its time and it’s cry for gender and sexual liberation even further ahead.
Bartlett’s adaptation playfully updates Woolf’s language without interfering with her intentions. She’s onstage much of the time as narrator(s); the moment when you first meet her (them) is a delight. The nine actors play a multitude of roles of both sexes too in a virtuoso ensemble performance greeted by loud cheers at the curtain. Deborah Findlay is thoroughly engaging as Orlando’s loyal retainer, talking direct to the audience, cheekily, also narrating. I was hugely impressed by Emma Corrin in what I think is only her second West End performance.
It’s only 80 minutes but it’s a delightful concoction.
Gareth's Culture and Travel Blog 
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