Sarah Ruhl’s Orlando —sparkling wit and ageless wisdom — at Constellation Theatre —gone but not forgotten
In Virginia Woolf’s Orlando A Biography, the eponymous hero undergoes many changes over the centuries— from roles in society and relationships to sex change. Since the time travel gender bending work was published in 1928, this his/her story has continued to undergone adaptions to its original form, from analytical scholarly critiques to crowd pleasing movies and stage plays.
Constellation Theatre Company continued the tradition with its amazing presentation of Sarah Ruhl’s narrative play Orlando.
Five actors take on dozens of roles as characters or in the chorus to keep the story at its rapid pace, condensing events spanning almost five centuries into 100 minutes. Orlando (Mary Myers) is ever the aristocrat whether as a page in the court of Queen Elizabeth I (Alan Naylor) or involved with a mysterious Russian princess (Edmee - Marie Faal) or pursued by the Archduchess Harriet (Arika Thames) or married to a sea captain (Christian Montgomery).
The center of the story hinges on Orlando awakening after a week of sleep to discover he has transformed into a woman. What follows is a dash through the centuries making adjustments — clothes like corsets and hoop skirts, change in rights of property ownership, relationships with both men and women —and finally— adaption to modern life.
The stage setting for this production is itself a work of art. A background wall with 26,000 handmade flowers of delicate fabric in various shadings of purple is bedecked with over a dozen clocks set at different hours. Gilded frames of various sizes are adaptable props varying from from their traditional use to enclose a portrait to being the imaginary doors of a car in the 20th century (by the end of the story Orlando is driving a car to go shopping at a department store.) Furniture is fundamentally the same just moved around for scene changes but Orlando’s garments as befitting sex and position change dramatically over time. (Orlando could not be driving a car at the beginning of the 20th century if wearing 16th century women’s clothing)!
Woolf’s work is many things — from feminist classic to a satire of British literary history. (Even Shakespeare has his moment in this production as Othello kills Desdemona.) What will bring a smile of recognition among the laughter is what is timeless and that is poetry and poets’ affinity with nature. Despite the dramatic changes in sex, status and society, Orlando will continue to retreat to sit under a gold oak tree to write a book of poetry that he/she has been working on for several centuries (aptly titled The Oak Tree).