In Elizabethan England, a young nobleman named Orlando sits beneath an oak tree, attempting to write a poem. Blessed with extraordinary beauty (and particularly impressive legs), he soon attracts the attention of Queen Elizabeth I, a Russian princess and a rather persistent Archduchess. 

But love is fleeting, time is unpredictable, and Orlando’s adventures are only just beginning. 

Swept from the English court to Constantinople, Orlando encounters passion, heartbreak, poetry and parties, before waking one morning to discover that he has become a woman. 

And so begins an extraordinary journey through the centuries, as Orlando navigates the increasingly bewildering rules of society. From the elaborate expectations of eighteenth-century femininity to the marriage-obsessed Victorian era and the rapidly changing twentieth century, Orlando discovers that while the world is forever reinventing itself, some things remain remarkably familiar. 

Adapted by Sarah Ruhl from Virginia Woolf’s beloved novel, Orlando is a witty, wildly imaginative and gloriously unconventional exploration of love, gender, identity and the passage of time. 

After all, when the world insists on telling you who you should be, how do you discover who you really are?