Orlando

Gender bending may seem a modern idea but 90 years ago novelist Virginia Woolf was creating Orlando, a handsomely hosed, favourite page boy of old Elizabeth I, who is later transformed into a woman and projected through the centuries. 

Woolf’s inspiration, back in the 1920’s, was her new lover, the shape-shifting lesbian Vita Sackville-West and her rather aristocratic ancestors.  

American writer Sarah Ruhl has skipped faithfully if a little glibly through Woolf’s words to re-create this pageant of history for the theatre.   It’s a whimsical tale beautifully narrated by the four men of the cast and Orlando herself – indeed, most of it exposition but presented out front with lots of wry wit and asides.  Director Sarah Goodes has forged an inventive ensemble, fresh with theatrical energy, as they improvise across times with quick threads of costume. 

John Gaden is a delight as the old Queen, desperate for page boy kisses, and Luisa Hastings Edge is formidable as the beautiful Russian Princess who steals Orlando’s heart while they skate together on the Thames – but betrays him.

After a bender in Constantinople, Orlando returns as a woman, never aging but smartly observing the shifting spirits of her times. Even now confined by crinoline, Jacqueline Mckenzie is impressively (and atypically) robust and dynamic as Orlando. She masterfully embodies the androgyny of the soul.

Gaden, Anthony Taufa, Garth Holcombe and a mercurial Matthew Backer artfully play across time a parade of lovers and other characters, adding a sometimes queer eye to Woolf’s fantasies on sexual identity.  

Renee Mulder’s revolving set of double staircases is functional, with handy drawers for props, and leaves the magic-making to the actors, and Damien Cooper’s complex lighting.  

Orlando is a poetic, absorbing time in the theatre, which ends powerfully when Orlando crashes into the bright lights of the 20^th Century.

Martin Portus

Images: John Gaden and Jacqueline McKenzie, & Garth Holcombe, John Gaden, Matthew Backer and Anthony Taufa in Sydney Theatre Company’s Orlando. ©Prudence Upton.