Middling Woolf in gender-bending clothing
Posted: 12:05 AM, September 24, 2010
Elisabeth Vincentelli
http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/theater/middling_woolf_in_gender_bending_ElVS9qcvThKZ4yDiv8Hj5H (http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/theater/middling_woolf_in_gender_bending_ElVS9qcvThKZ4yDiv8Hj5H)
Virginia Woolf's 1928 novel "Orlando" poses daunting challenges to stage adapters. The title character starts off as a boy, then becomes a woman. And not only does Orlando live through the Elizabethan era on to the 20th century, but he/she has heated romances with both sexes, and picaresque adventures around the world.
An extra hurdle is the giant shadow cast by Sally Potter's 1992 film version, which starred Tilda Swinton at the peak of her otherworldly powers.
But Sarah Ruhl wasn't afraid of either Virginia Woolf or "Orlando." She went for a hybrid style called "story theater" that mixes staged reading and all-out performance. The characters sometimes comment on their actions in the third person, sometimes act them out.