Review: Orlando at the Jermyn Street Theatre

Sarah Ruhl has adapted Orlando ingeniously for a cast of five: Orlando, Sasha, and a three-strong chorus. It is excellently cast, and extremely slick in its execution, with plenty of carefully timed chorus-speaking and snappy sharing of sentences throughout.

Taylor McClaine’s Orlando is endearing as a young man and later glides elegantly into womanhood while carrying all the simmering frustration of knowing what freedoms she has lost in the process. Their conspiratorial relationship with the audience has a lovely light touch and brings comedy and spirit to the performance as a whole.

Skye Hallam as Sasha manages to be simultaneously imperious and coquettish, and with all the other four cast members onstage throughout, director Stella Powell-Jones has lent her a lovely air of mystery and unattainability as she appears and disappears from the scene.