Orlanda

There’s a voice in Aline’s head, a voice she’s long ignored. Brash, boisterous, sexually adventurous, this voice seems to be the antithesis of Aline, a prim and proper literature professor living out a dull existence in bourgeois Brussels. Bullied by her mother, fondly ignored by Albert, her live-in lover, Aline’s life stretches on before her, each day as quiet and conventional as the next. Until, after thirty-five years of suppression, her alter ego wants out. Slipping into the taut, muscled body of a nearby young man, Aline’s second self – Orlanda, as he shall come to be known – takes on a life of his own. As Aline continues with her orderly life, dutifully preparing for classes and listening to Albert’s tedious tales of work, Orlanda follows, dragging gleeful chaos in his wake. In this brilliantly bizarre comedy of androgyny and double selves, Jacqueline Harpman masterfully examines the weird, hidden heart of gender and sexuality.