Playwright Sarah Ruhl adapts Virginia Woolf’s Orlando—once called “the longest and most charming love letter in literature,” written by Woolf for her lover, Vita Sackville-West. Orlando’s adventures begin as a young man, when he serves as courtier to Queen Elizabeth. Through many centuries of living, he becomes a 20th-century woman, trying to sort out her existence. This theatrical, wild, fantastical trip through space, time, and gender features the one and only Taylor Mac in the title role.
The episodic adventures should be delightful, but they are instead removed and remote, for a compound of reasons. Ruhl’s script relies on narration rather than dialogue (of which there is admittedly relatively little in Woolf’s novel.) Six of the cast members (all but Mac) spend most of their time not as characters but as chorus members. They divvy up their exposition, often one single line after another. And they are often huddled together on a stage that is essentially bare – which results in a vastness that swallows up their lines.
Ruhl’s adaptation of Orlando pulls heavily from the source material, which can end up feeling like a distant narration rather than an emotionally involved story. That said, the cast are all endlessly personable. Laughs abound throughout the duration of the show’s 100-minute runtime
1988 | London |
Original London Production London |
2022 | West End |
West End |
2024 | Off-Broadway |
Signature Theater Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
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