Orlando: It’s a Woman’s World…

Epic Theatre Company’s production of Orlando, based on the novel by Virginia Woolf, questions our view of the sexes with stunning efficiency. Written by Sarah Ruhl and directed by Kira Hawkridge, Orlando is a parody of a biography. The book was inspired by Woolf’s admiration for the author and aristocrat Vita Sackville-West, to whom it is dedicated.

Tammy Brown is Orlando, who begins the play as a man and ends the play as a woman. In between, the character experiences a severe identity crisis. The setting is Elizabethan England. Orlando is 16 years old and is a shy aspiring poet when he meets the Queen, who becomes enamored of him and names him her treasurer and steward. After the Queen’s death, Orlando meets a Russian princess, Sasha, and falls deeply in love. During a night of civil unrest, Orlando falls into a six-day coma and wakes up as a woman. Orlando struggles with the “penalties and privileges of being female” and laments the things she used to be able to do as a man. The story takes Orlando through the 19^th and 20^th centuries, where she longs for love and fulfillment.

If you walk into Orlando with little familiarity of Woolf’s novel, you may leave feeling a bit confused. The play tells a lot of story in 76 minutes. The running narration by the supporting characters helps, but not enough. What works is Hawkridge’s staging of the play in the round and the decision to cast actresses to portray all the roles – male and female.

As Orlando, Brown acquits herself admirably as the character undergoes the transformation from male to female. She is a compelling presence and sells the conflict raging beneath the surface. Kerry Giorgi, who has appeared in several Epic productions, is suitably imperious as the Queen. Ruhl’s dialogue is frequently poetic and features scenes of great humor and eroticism. The concept of exploring alternate sexual identities is timely and provocative. Woolf was way ahead of her time by writing this groundbreaking material.

Is Orlando worth seeing? I would say yes, with the assumption that women theatergoers will probably be more entranced by what they see than the men. If there’s a theatrical equivalent to the chick flick, Orlando is it.

Orlando will be performed through June 14 at Theater 82 located at 82 Rolfe Square in Cranston, RI. For tickets go to http://www.artists-exchange.org/epictheatrecompany.html or call 401.490.9475.