Premiere in the Little House
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Orlando and the search for the right role
Cennet Rüya Voss plays the title character Orlando, a young lord wandering through four centuries and the generations.
Photo: Thomas Rabsch
Düsseldorf As a director, André Kaczmarczyk brings Virginia Woolf’s novel “Orlando” to the Little House stage. In his theatrical version, he incorporated the character of the writer as a leading role.
After more than four hours of intensive rehearsals for “Orlando”, Cennet Rüya Voß and Claudia Hübbecker should actually be exhausted. They are too, but they hide that. No time to rest. Soon that day it will continue for them. Both have a performance in the evening. Tomorrow also. And once more the day following tomorrow.
During the day, the ensemble works with director André Kaczmarczyk on the fine-tuning of the “Orlando” premiere, which had to be postponed by a few days and is now scheduled for Thursday, February 24th. Despite this mammoth program, the actresses feel like talking regarding their roles in the scenic adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s book during the short break. You can feel how inspired they are and how excited they are for this opulent evening in the Little House.
“The production has the breath of the big house,” says Claudia Hübbecker, who takes part as Virginia Woolf. “I’ve never experienced so much transformation on the Little House stage. The director knows how to use the diverse possibilities of this stage. André is a theater person with a lot of knowledge and a feeling for his profession.”
This is not the first time she has worked with him as a director, most recently on “Alice”. For Cennet Rüya Voß, Kaczmarczyk, who also wrote the version and the lyrics for this piece, has so far only been a colleague. “Of course I can tell from his pleasant direction that he’s an actor. He sees intuitively and very quickly when something isn’t quite right,” she says. “It helps me to work on my precision. But he also built really great pictures.”
She plays the title character, the cultured young Lord Orlando, who wanders through four centuries and the generations. The theatrical version remains relatively close to the 1928 novel. In it, Virginia Woolf addresses her relationship with her lover, the writer Vita Sackville-West, and addresses questions of identity, power and gender roles. “Orlando is always looking for the truth,” explains Cennet Rüya Voß. “The only question is whether this truth even exists or whether the attempt is hopeless and must fail. He writes and writes and wants to find out the meaning of life. So it may have been with Virginia Woolf.”
After days of slumber, Orlando awakens as a lady and continues the quest in the opposite sex, as lover, poet and mother. “The transformation is, strictly speaking, a reverse transformation,” says Cennet Rüya Voß. “Because it’s obvious from the start that I’m physically a woman, even if I’m playing a man.”
How does this leap take place on stage? “The change will be a kind of dance, sensual and without much astonishment. However, it is only made clear by the reactions of the other characters. And yet I have to step in with relish, which is also reflected in my movements.” Trouser roles are quite familiar to Cennet Rüya Voß. So what does she prefer to play, a man, a woman? She thinks for a moment. “I don’t think I can give a clear answer to that. It depends on the density of the thoughts, on what the person can and is allowed to negotiate.”
Claudia Hübbecker agrees: “You shouldn’t think regarding this separation and judge people only by their sexes.” She quotes Virginia Woolf: “In view of the vastness and abundance of this world, two sexes are actually not enough. How might we get by with just one.”
The playful handling of the genders runs through the entire production. Almost all embody male and female roles. Cathleen Baumann, for example, plays a Russian countess and two poets, Rainer Philippi a housekeeper and Queen Elizabeth I of England.
The character of Virginia Woolf was anchored in “Orlando” with almost constant stage presence. “André came up with it, he was convinced that it wouldn’t work without it,” reports Claudia Hübbecker and shares the same opinion. “A totally exciting task, both for the director and for me. One cannot ignore the creator of this incredible book. It’s obvious that she got something off her chest with that. The material holds many mysteries.” Virginia Woolf wasn’t involved as a presenter leading through the scenes. It shouldn’t be so flat and clear. “There should be space for your thoughts, similar to the novel, which has something driven and energetic and nothing tragic-depressive-paralyzed,” says the actress. “It’s as if Virginia Woolf is connected to the audience as the writer is to her audience. This will be a voyage of discovery, dazzling and rich.”