Love, sex, and time travel? Constellation Theatre Company’s ORLANDO follows closely Virginia Wolfe’s novel of the same name and is adapted by Sarah Ruhl.
It’s almost as if Wolfe wrote this one for modern progressive audiences — and then allowed Constellation to give it its unique flair for dramatic humor. Though, what might have originally been intended as a satirical novel, now undoubtedly has a more serious contemporary message.
Orlando, at the beginning, is a young man on a journey of self-discovery, deciding his place in the world, at court, and in his love life.
But over the course of five centuries — somehow Orlando’s life spans from the Elizabethan court to modern today — the young man also miraculously changes gender as well!
According to Wolfe, “Orlando had become a woman – there is no denying it. But in every other respect, Orlando remained precisely as he had been.”
Yes, from man to woman, various types of romance/love/lust, and even attempting to finish a poem in self-reflection, Orlando (Mary Myers) deftly explores them all with gusto. And Myers’ supporting cast of four, also playing a variety of characters and genders, is equally as entrancing.
In the end, it’s a play about humanity, and this is Constellation’s strength.
You’ll certainly laugh; you’ll think; and you’ll realize that no matter the time, space, or indeed gender, we are all precisely what we are intended to be.
Orlando plays at Source Theatre through November 11, 2023. Tickets $20-45. 90 minutes, no intermission.
