
"Two stupid genders; which one am I?"
In tandem with a production of Orlando, that I directed
and co-wrote.
Orlando - Teatteri Vertigo - VPK Talo - Finland
"People who had both male and female characteristics were viewed as gifted by nature and therefore, able to see both sides of everything."
"Orlando was ready to tear his hair with vexation that the person was of his own sex, and thus all embraces were out of the question...Wait a minute...No boy ever had eyes which looked as if they had been fished from the bottom of the sea. He's a she . Oh thank god."
"An intimacy of commonality develops between them and soon they are the talk of the encampment and cause quite a scandal."
"The change of sex, although it altered my future, did nothing whatever to alter my identity. My face, his face remained practically the same."
"I am she whose touch freezes and when I walk lightning flashes in my hair; where my eyes fall, they kill. Rather than let Orlando wake, I will freeze him to the bone."
"The truth and nothing but the truth."
"Perhaps I could throw myself overboard, out of the sheer pleasure to be saved by a sailor."
"Memories can be like arrows which have been dipped in bile."
"All ends in death."
"Dampness is sly and in the end finds its way into the hearts of people."
"Two stupid genders, which one am I?"
"I have found my companion, finally. I am nature's bride. Here I shall stay...I am dead."
"I have something like twenty million ducats in a strong box at my castle. I've more acres of land than any nobleman in England. The shooting is excellent. I will take my leave of you now, but I will return tomorrow for my answer."
"You don't really want a husband...you want a lover."
"A hand that only needs to rise and a head will fall."
"The philosopher is right who says that nothing thicker than a knife's blade separates happiness from melancholy; one is the twin of the other and they go back and forth like a swing in the breeze."
"The vultures of lust descend. Repulsed and yet attracted, Orlando does what every young man would do in his position - flees the country and goes as far away from the monstrous advances of Achduchess Harriet."
"It wasn’t until the Europeans colonised the rest of the world that the natives of some countries adopted the ideas of gender roles. For these people, there was no set of rules that men and women had to abide by in order to be considered a “normal” member of their tribe. In fact, people who had both female and male characteristics were viewed as gifted by nature, and therefore, able to see both sides of everything."
"I think I’m going to faint. I have never felt better in my life."
"Let's hope you never find out if my teeth are like steel blades."
"Why should I enslave myself with this shackle."
"As the great, but not so Virgin Queen breathed her last sigh, the great frost began."
"What is it deep inside of us that fights the idea of impermanence?"
Orlando is now at home and he / she / it now sees that there is always darkness even in the light.
"He believes in a beauty, He's Venus as a boy. He's exploring The taste of her, Arousal, So accurate. He sets off The beauty in her, He's Venus as a boy."
"If this is love, there is something highly ridiculous about it."
Any woman who declares herself "dead", while still yearning for a companion is indeed a woman of extraordinary depth and complexity. And makes for a more interesting and equal partner."
28 Grainy photographs of Orlando echoing times gone by and times to come. Linearity is eclipsed by memory and years roll into one. Genders become neutral and the act of living takes precedence over sex. One lives so many lives, it's exciting to see what comes next.