‘Orlando’ is the perfect season opener for the Studio Theatre

Orlando, adapted and written by Sarah Ruhl and directed by Ron Jenkins, kicked the University of Alberta’s Studio Theatre’s 75th season off on the right foot. Everything was executed masterfully, from the acting to the sound to the costumes. The play managed to bring Virginia Woolf’s novel to life for the modern audience without sacrificing the story’s integrity.

Orlando follows a young man as he navigates life at court in England. He has many flings with women and a devastating love before he escapes to Constantinople, now known as Istanbul. Then at the age of 30, Orlando (Julie Koebel) becomes a woman and enters a new phase of life as she returns to England. Orlando defies ideas of love, gender, and time in a hilarious but also tender way.

The story itself tends to be more playful than serious, getting plenty of laughs from the audience. But it also managed to balance the more serious moments of the play. More than anything, it took the audience on the journey of Orlando’s life — from an overdramatic young man, to a captivating woman, to a lost woman existing outside of normal time. 

A chorus of six others (Sam Bronson, Kelsey Jakoy, Grace Jenkins, Alex Sahli, Jack Valentine, and Jack Walker) joined Koebel onstage. The chorus helped tie the whole play together. Not only did they each act as narrators and different characters throughout the play, but they moved the props around and helped transform the set seamlessly. While Koebel gave an incredible performance as the lead, the rest of the cast really brought the entire play together.

The set was simple, largely consisting of a table, chairs, a couple of plants, and a looming abstract oak tree. But the chorus transformed the set from scene to scene by simply moving the props around. I rarely even noticed the transformation happening before me because the chorus did it so fluidly. 

Additionally, the costumes were on point. The chorus wore all black under a white corset throughout most of the play, but had different costumes for the different characters they played. Orlando’s costume changed to reflect the progression of the story. But all of the costumes reflected not only the characters of the play, but also the changing time and place.

The tech crew working behind the scenes also can’t go unmentioned. So many of the scenes depended on sound and lighting to come to life. The crew had impeccable timing, never missing a cue. The lighting was especially well done — reflecting the mood and setting of the scenes throughout the play. It always managed to give the audience exactly what we needed in each moment of the play.

Orlando is a must-see play with an incredibly talented cast onstage and an equally capable crew behind the scenes. There couldn’t have been a better way to kick off the studio’s season.

Orlando is playing at the Timms Centre until October 19.