Orlando
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Orlando

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Emma Valente and Kate Davis have produced on stage their tactile and conceptually rounded take on a novel that is as uneven as it is brilliant. The first 60 pages of the novel – on the British society of the rather bellicose 18th century – are arguably one of Woolf’s finest writing samples and overall it spans three centuries, from London to Constantinople and back to London as it deals with the transformation of Orlando from a man to woman and his/her internal and external quests. The work from the author of Mrs Dalloway and To The Lighthouse is far from easy to penetrate but Orlando’s direct links to her lover Vita Sackville-West and detailed references to Elizabethan society has been widely considered her most accessible work.

Those who have grappled with the novel will find their interest piqued on a number of occasions while those that have not tackled reading the novel will find themselves shocked and at the same time drawn to the symbolisms of this iconoclastic play. The duality of the symbols and props combined with the ambient white colour was captivating. Thanks to the intelligent, fluid setting of a pool filled with what appears to be cloudy water, Valente’s visual vocabulary managed to accentuate the message of the novel; breaking away from the gender stereotypes should be an option people should feel free to explore and terms like, ‘he/she’, ‘his/her’ can be limiting a person’s identity and self-expression.

The pace of the performance was slightly uneven midway through (which can be attributed to Valente’s direction) and it came to a much needed end by the borderline head banging sequence with the strobe light under the sound of thrash metal music. Dana Miltins was not entirely convincing when it came to portraying Orlando’s tumultuous journey but there were moments in her monologues where her character’s torment shined through her entire body; the sequence when she’s holding a cup of tea was one of the most memorable and powerful scenes of the play that connected with the audience as it illustrated the poignancy of Woolf’s questioning of gender roles.

The other performers managed to shine with Syd Brisbane especially riveting as the arrogant poet Nicholas Greene and Mary Helen Sassman showcasing both her vocal range throughout the play and her comedic flare as the penis-obsessed, seductively raw Russian princess. Individual performances aside, and to paraphrase Virginia Woolf herself, the show as a whole manages to make the statement that ‘Orlando can still be said to have existed at the present moment’ but ultimately fails to capture the audience’s attention from start to finish. If you are a fan of Virginia Woolf’s work you would be remiss not to check out this confronting and artistically wholesome adaptation but its unevenness could prove to be problematic for people that have not read the novel.