Orlando is a sharp-witted, gay, middle-aged Englishman who has moved to the South of France to write his “great novel”. But the French experience hasn’t quite turned out the way he expected: he’s bored, isolated, lonely and suffering from writer’s block. When his younger brother Christian comes to visit, Orlando is presented with an intriguing “out”: Christian’s rabidly obsessive ex-girlfriend Roxanne has been overwhelming him with an onslaught of hateful texts, mails and social media. Christian asks Orlando the writer begin writing back on his behalf.
Witty, caustic, hilarious and increasingly unhinged, the vituperative correspondence between Orlando and Roxanne becomes a marvellous distraction from Orlando’s personal frustrations, until the game spirals and the stakes turn real. Orlando must choose between this exaggerated performance and real connections with other human beings, before he loses everything.
Rostand, reimagined for the digital age.