Time and gender are fluid in Lyric Stage’s production
One of the most transgressive works in all of literature is Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel, “Orlando: A Biography,” a romantic romp about a young English nobleman and poet who changes sex from male to female and lives for centuries. There have been various adaptations of the novel, Woolf’s most popular, such as the 1992 film starring Tilda Swinton as Orlando and Quentin Crisp as Queen Elizabeth I. More recently, acclaimed playwright Sarah Ruhl tackled a stage version, produced off-Broadway in 2010 and directed by Rebecca Taichman who won the Tony last year for directing Paula Vogel’s “Indecent.”
Area audiences will get to experience “Orlando” in the flesh as Boston’s Lyric Stage mounts a production that runs February 23–March 25.
The show is directed by A. Nora Long, associate artistic director at the Lyric Stage and a fan of Ruhl. Among her many honors, Ruhl was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony Award nominee for best new play for “In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play.”
Long says the current cultural moment is perfect for Woolf’s timeless tale.
“People are interested in investigating the way men and women are socialized to approach desire and sex, and also having the conversation about ‘is the binary useful’ and how we move beyond that to be more inclusive and kind,” says Long, a Roslindale native who earned her MFA in dramaturgy from the American Repertory Theatre/Moscow Art Theatre School Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University. “For some, the play will feel revolutionary to see now. For others, it’s a chance to start a conversation.”
“ Conversations about gender are prevalent on college campuses and in the culture in a way it wasn’t when Sarah adapted [‘Orlando’]. The students had the opportunity to engage with and be challenged by a text that resonated in that way. ”
A. Nora Long, Director, “Orlando: A Biograpy”
Woolf wrote “Orlando,” a satire of a biography, for her lover and close friend, the aristocratic poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West, to whom it is dedicated. Most interpretations agree that the character of Orlando is a winking portrait of Sackville-West, and that Woolf transformed West’s lover Violet Trefusis into the Russian princess Sasha, the great love of Orlando’s youth.
Long notes that Sackville-West’s son, Nigel Nicolson, called “Orlando” “the longest and most charming love letter in literature.”
“It was the fastest novel [Woolf] wrote and she had a lot of fun writing it and celebrating Vita Sackville-West,” says the director. “It was a fantastical and wonderfully romantic gift to her and she loved it.”
With the Lyric production, Long gets the rare opportunity to revisit a show she’d previously staged at Suffolk University in the Spring of 2017 and make deeper discoveries into the rich material. Long chose “Orlando” for a collaboration between Suffolk’s theater department and the Lyric because it seemed fitting in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, a contentious time when social attitudes about gender roles and the different treatment of men and women on the world stage were being assessed and debated.
A year later, the context has only broadened and the conversation may be even more urgent.
“Not enough has changed since Ruhl wrote the play or since Woolf’s book,” says Long, who will moderate post-performance chats between the cast and audience February 25 and March 11, after the 3 p.m. performance.
While the Suffolk production featured 17 students, the Lyric’s cast will be leaner and a mix of Boston stage veterans and newcomers, led by Caroline Lawton as Orlando. Lawton’s extensive credits include Lyric Stage’s productions of “Tale of the Allergist’s Wife” and “The Underpants.” Also in the cast is Jeff Marcus, from last season’s “Camelot” at the Lyric; Elise Arsenault (“Avenue Q,” “My Fair Lady”); Michael Hisamoto (“Hold These Truths”); Hayley Spivey, whom Long saw in “Men on Boats” at SpeakEasy Stage; and Rory Lambert-Wright, a transfer from the Suffolk University production who is making his Lyric debut.
The show was a hit with the student community and audiences at Suffolk. “Conversations about gender are prevalent on college campuses and in the culture in a way it wasn’t when Sarah adapted [‘Orlando’]. The students had the opportunity to engage with and be challenged by a text that resonated in that way,” she says.
Despite Woolf’s highbrow reputation, “Orlando” is a wild, fun and sexy tale rich in time-travel and gender bending romance. “It’s a fast-paced play,” says Long. In the intimate confines of the Lyric, she hopes “Orlando” feels “like a party that will end too soon.” [x]
lyricstage.com
