Orlando, starring Emma Corrin, Garrick Theatre, Dec 2022
Twice throughout Orlando on the Garrick Theatre, Emma Corrin says ‘gosh’ and to my ear, it was her Princess Diana in The Crown saying it. I’m hoping it was intentional as it could match with the up to date references that are peppered all through Neil Bartlett’s adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s novel.
Some of it’s delicate, some much less so, nevertheless it’s a part of what makes this a enjoyable and playful manufacturing of a narrative with severe themes.
Corrin performs the eponymous Orlando, generally a person, generally a girl, whose story spans from the sixteenth century to the second world struggle, on a regular basis remaining of their 20s or 30s.
They are a personality that’s without end looking out: Who am I? But in essence, it is a seek for the liberty to be themselves, to precise who they’re and brazenly love who they love.
There is a refrain of ‘Virginias’, all dourly dressed, who step in to play extra characters. The casting is ethnicity and gender-blind, one thing that would not usually increase an eyebrow, however right here it feels notably good; the fluidity of gender and roles within the context of the story nails the purpose.
Clothes as labels
As Orlando passes via the centuries, they work their method via a dizzying array of costumes, however these turn into symbolic of society’s labels and expectations of binary genders.
They are most free when in an androgynous outsized shirt – a state of gown to which they default usually. Corrin morphs into every iteration of Orlando in a blink of a posture change or tonal shift in voice.
And that’s the play; it morphs from one interval to a different with Deborah Findlay’s wardrobe mistress/narrator holding the viewers in control in an virtually pantomime model – the viewers is known as ‘girls and boys’ at one level.
In one of many much less delicate up to date nods, she recurrently corrects herself: “Ladies and gents, sorry, everybody”.
Women’s standing in society
But the play is not nearly gender id; when Orlando turns into a girl, her rights are stripped away in a blink, and the strain to marry intensifies.
This is cemented in a dismal and stiff Victorian-era set scene the place her function in society – to bear 15 youngsters – is depressingly set out.
Progress in girls’s rights and the journey to freedom of id is highlighted on the finish when the Nineteen Forties Orlando is instructed: “If you would simply stay one other century”.
Sometimes the much less delicate touches overwhelm the extra delicate wit of Bartlett’s script, and, simply often, it’s troublesome to inform who it’s poking enjoyable at. Overall it’s an pleasant watch and really nicely finished.
I’m giving it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.
Orlando, Garrick Theatre
Directed by Michael Grandage
Adapted by Neil Bartlett from Virginia Woolf’s novel
Running time: 90 minutes with out an interval
Booking till 25 February; go to the web site for extra data and tickets.
Recently reviewed:
Othello, National Theatre ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reserving till 21 January
Good, Harold Pinter Theatre ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ now reserving till 7 January 2023.
Theatre within the diary:
A Streetcar Named Desire, Almeida Theatre
The Art of Illusion, Hampstead Theatre