The Michael Grandage Company (MGC) has announced that their production of Orlando will open at the Garrick Theatre on December 5 and will star Emma Corrin in the titular role.
Orlando is based on Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel, Orlando: A Biography. It tells the tale of Orlando, a member of the English nobility in the 16th century, who changes from a man into a woman aged 30, and then lives for many centuries without ageing.
Neil Bartlett OBE, whose plays have been staged by institutions including the National Theatre (Berenice, The Game of Love and Chance, In Extremis) and the RSC ( The Dispute, The Prince of Homburg), is behind the new adaption. Michael Grandage, who was the Artistic Director of London’s Donmar Warehouse for a decade before going all-in on his own company, is directing.
MGC’s past productions include The Lieutenant of Inishmore with Aidan Turner, Labour of Love (co-produced with Headlong) with Martin Freeman and Tamsin Greig, Photograph 51 with Nicole Kidman and Henry V with Jude Law.
Over 10,000 tickets will be available for £10 as part of the company’s initiative to get more people into the theatre. “The company is committed to accessibility and generating new audiences, ensuring that 25 per cent of all stage production seats cost just £10,” explains MGC’s website.
English actor Corrin rose to fame playing Princess Diana in the fourth season of The Crown for which they won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Series Drama. Corrin has already cut their teeth on the stage too: in 2021 they played Anna in Anna X which was performed at the Harold Pinter Theatre and The Lowry, and was inspired by the story of socialite scammer Anna Sorokin.
The 26-year-old will be playing a lead role in another of Grandage’s productions, the forthcoming romantic drama film My Policeman, alongside Harry Styles and David Dawson. The film, based on the novel of the same name by Bethan Roberts, is set in the Fifties in Brighton and follows the life and relationships of a closeted gay policeman, played by Styles, during a time when it was illegal to be homosexual. Corrin plays his wife and Dawson his secret lover.
Corrin came out as non-binary in July 2021 by changing their pronouns on Twitter to she/they. The pronouns have since been changed to they/them.
Speaking to Vogue Australia in July 2022 Corrin said: “In my mind, gender just isn’t something that feels fixed. I don’t know if it ever will be; there might always be some fluidity there for me.”
“I feel much more seen when I’m referred to as ‘they,’ but my closest friends, they will call me ‘she,’ and I don’t mind, because I know they know me,” they added.
Speaking to The Guardian in 2021 about their next steps after The Crown, Corrin said: “The insecurity and the stress around it shifts, but it doesn’t go away. It mutates. Recently, I’ve been sent a lot of scripts, and I feel like a very small fish in a huge ocean.”
