"The thought of performing on rollerskates kind of churns my stomach at the moment," jokes actor Janet Anderson, who stars in Belvoir St Theatre's latest production, Orlando.??
"But every day I'm getting a little bit better."
In a pivotal scene in Virginia Woolf's 1928 novel Orlando: A Biography, a Russian princess ice skates over a frozen River Thames and captures the attention of a young English nobleman named Orlando — and what better way to bring that to life on stage than putting your cast in rollerskates?
It's the vision of director Carissa Licciardello who has adapted Woolf's classic, alongside collaborator Elsie Yager.
"At some point, one of our collaborators said, 'is it crazy to put everyone on rollerskates?'", Licciardello says.
"So we kind of went to them and said, 'how do you feel about doing this?' And all of them were like, 'absolutely, let's go' and started doing lessons and prepping for it."
It's just one example of how this team of young, passionate theatre-makers has translated Woolf's famous work for a new generation.
A time-travelling, gender-bending classic
Woolf's novel tells the story of a rich and handsome aspiring poet named Orlando who sets out in search of love in the Elizabethan era.
One of the English author's most cheeky and experimental works, Orlando inexplicably lives for centuries while barely ageing, and one day mysteriously wakes up as a woman.
Still in pursuit of love, she discovers society now treats her very differently.
"We're watching a world that is really fixed and then finds itself in revolution over and over again," Licciardello says.
"And as time shifts and the world shifts, so does Orlando."
Woolf's novel is widely considered a queer love letter to her close friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West, a garden designer and author who often wore men's clothing and inspired the protagonist, Orlando.
Themes of gender and identity are central to the story.
"Trans experience sits at the centre of the work," Licciardello says. "Around that is pansexuality and bisexuality."
While such language may not have been available to Virginia Woolf when she penned Orlando almost 100 years ago, it's now being revisited through a contemporary lens.
"It's also a work about women, which is one of Woolf's key themes," Licciardello says.
"This is a show that Elsie Yager and I have wanted to do for a long time.
"When we first read the novel, we were really surprised that the story is a bit different to what we thought. It wasn't just the story of a man who becomes a woman, but actually a person who goes through several different selves.
"My co-collaborator on the adaptation, Elsie, is part of the trans community and she's got an essential lens on that."
Authentic casting
In Belvoir's production, the role of Orlando is played by four different actors set in different eras. Each actor is part of the trans or non-binary community.
"What's exciting about the novel is I think Woolf was exploring gender fluidity in a way that maybe wouldn't have been super apparent at the time," Licciardello says.
"[It] felt essential that we could have artists who bring lived experience and insight into what these characters are going through."
Rising star and NIDA graduate Janet Anderson plays Orlando number two.
"I play Orlando when she first kind of appears as a debutante and is welcomed into high society around Restoration-era England," Anderson says.
It was Tilda Swinton's portrayal of Orlando in the 1992 film adaptation that caught Anderson's eye.
"I first saw the film when I was 16. It's just a beautiful kind of queer story. I also was attracted to the kind of lush costumes and lavish sets and everything," she says.
"I like my theatre theatrical."
But Anderson isn't out to replicate Swinton's performance.
"The kind of style we're going for is a bit larger than life. And I would say that Tilda's maybe a bit reserved," she says.
Trans and queer joy
At time when LGBTQ+ rights are under threat internationally, Anderson, who is a trans woman, was excited by Belvoir's vision for Orlando.
"This current climate is a tricky one, and being a trans actor in the state of things can be a little hairy," she says.
"I've been lucky enough to play quite a few trans roles in my career so far, but this is the first time I've been able to work with an ensemble like this where we've really been able to kind of unpick it from all our different lived experiences."
Anderson says it's important to show trans and queer joy on stage.
"This work has a real joy behind it. And I'm just excited for people to be able to have a kind of magical theatre experience while also being able to feel seen and heard," she says.
"We get to do a lot of character work and silly kind of caricatures of people. So it's been really fun going to the extremes of what these fuddy-duddy posh people would have sounded like and looked like. And there's lots of dance and music and a lot of opportunities for play, which is really exciting."
Sticking your finger up at power
"It's this total bubble of playfulness and cheekiness and subversion of power dynamics," Licciardello says.
"And I think that's a really powerful thing in a world where, you know, things are very difficult for the queer community.
"It's a really powerful thing for a group of queer people to claim joy and freedom, playfulness … kind of sticking your finger up at power."
Orlando runs from September 6-28 at Sydney's Belvoir St Theatre.
