Orlando

Gender, Love, Death, and Time: A Look into the World of Orlando

This spring, University of Idaho Theatre is delighted to bring "Orlando" to the Forge Theater. Directed by MFA student Blake Watson and adapted from Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel "Orlando: a Biography," Sarah Ruhl brings us back to a story that feels like it could have been written today.

Highly evocative, "Orlando" is a play that transcends expectations, even nearly one hundred years after the novel was published. From gender to existential questions of the self and immortality, little is off limits in "Orlando." Playwright Sarah Ruhl has made a point to remain as true as possible to Virginia Woolf’s original work in her adaptation, noting that “Woolf’s language is so much better than any of her imitators could ever be; and all the narration in this piece is hers and hers alone.” Whether it be flowery poetry, questions of life and death, or its inviting humor, there is something for everyone to indulge in with a work as whimsical as "Orlando."

“She, who believed in no immortality, could not help feeling that her soul would come and go forever” – Virginia Woolf, on "Orlando"

The play begins with an introduction to Orlando, a young, wealthy nobleman in Elizabethan England. Young and naive, sixteen-year-old Orlando is primarily concerned with amateur poetry and his sword. However, after winning over the likes of Queen Elizabeth herself, he is quickly titled her steward and treasurer– the son of her old age. Not soon after this, Orlando finds himself astray from the queen in pursuit of other desires; multiple short-lived romances, an engagement, an open affair, devastating heartbreak, and an unwanted yet persistent suitor leave Orlando itching to leave England.

However, this is only the beginning of the story. As the play continues it is clear that the Orlando that returns to England in the 18th century is not the same person that left so many years before– both literally and figuratively. After one particularly extravagant night in Constantinople, she wakes up to find herself completely transformed into a woman.

Although Woolf and Ruhl provide little explanation about how or why this happens, what we do see is that everything Orlando had once known about the world is now upended. Over the span of nearly five hundred years, we watch how Orlando confronts every aspect of her own being as a woman: identity, the self, preconceived notions of the world, and what it means to love another.

By Paige O’Callaghan, Dramaturg for "Orlando"
Department of Theatre Arts, University of Idaho

Performance Dates & Ticket Information

"Orlando"

Based on the novel by Virginia Woolf
Adapted by Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Blake Watson

View program here.

Show Times and Dates

7:30 p.m., April 25-27, May 3-4
2 p.m., April 28, May 5

Location

Forge Theater, 404 Sweet Avenue, Moscow

Ticket Information

Free for U of I students
$5 to $25 general admission
Tickets available here
NOTE: April 25 is PREVIEW night. All tickets are $10 (except UI student tickets are free.)