Cast Set for ORLANDO: A PORNOBIOGRAPHY at New Diorama Theatre

The cast has been revealed for the world premiere adaptation of Virginia Woolf's Orlando at London's New Diorama Theatre, featuring Charli Cowgill, Laurie Ward, Sharon Le Grand, Macy Seelochan, and Mary Malone.

SISSY: Advice to the young. It’s only dress-up. Don’t let it ruin your life. Three boys, hunting on palace grounds, spot a girl. Two strangers skate together on the frozen River Thames. A young man and a married crossdresser meet for a playdate. Centuries pass, and Orlando has just bought a plane ticket to Neukölln, Berlin.

Part pornographic bildungsroman, part frosted fever dream, Orlando: A Pornobiography is a restless transmission across time. Gliding between the surreal and the hyperreal, this unruly epic sees the 16th Century ring a phone sex hotline to find the 21st Century on the other end of the line, asking for a body capable of surviving its own desire.

Across erotic entanglements, historical ruptures, and queer intrusions, an ensemble of transfemme performers tear through Virginia Woolf’s Orlando in this brazen anti-adaptation, a world premiere commissioned by New Diorama Theatre from award-winning duo piss / CARNATION.

piss / CARNATION are Charli Cowgill and Laurie Ward, who both perform in Orlando: A Pornobiography alongside Sharon Le Grand, Macy Seelochan and Mary Malone

piss / CARNATION make fervent and interdisciplinary theatre work about transfemininity. Their name comes from pissnelke, German for wild flowers that grow in urine-soaked areas. piss / CARNATION combine brutality with tenderness, abjection with glamour and experimental forms with uncompromising honesty. They’ve staged their distinctive, provocative works at the Edinburgh Fringe, Soho Theatre, New Diorama Theatre, and Camden People's Theatre. They’ve also won awards including the Edinburgh Untapped Award (2024) for their production Ugly Sisters, and for the same run the Binge Fringe Queer Performer’s Award in recognition of underrepresented voices at Edinburgh Fringe 2024. The company are Pleasance Associate Artists (2025–2027) chosen for their boundary-pushing mix of performance art, new writing, and cabaret.

About the Cast

Charli Cowgill is a London-based performance artist and writer. She is one half of piss / CARNATION. Her previous work includes 52 Monologues for Young Transsexuals (Soho Theatre) and Ugly Sisters (New Diorama Theatre; Soho Theatre).

Laurie Ward is an artist and writer from Newcastle Upon Tyne, now living in London. She mainly produces work as one half of transfeminine theatre duo piss / CARNATION. Her work for the company has been critically acclaimed for its fearlessness and vision.

Macy Seelochan trained at RCSSD. Theatre includes: Grandchild.mp3 (Pushback Theatre/Hackney Showrooms), Dracula (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith), Metamorphoses (Cockpit Theatre), As You Like It (Shakespeare’s Globe), Galatea (Wildworks/Marlborough Productions), Don’t Smoke in Bed (Vaults Festival), Jacob Wants His Grandad (Pleasance Theatre/Nottingham Playhouse/Theatre Deli), Groove (Outbox Theatre/Shoreditch Town Hall), A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Arcadia (Nottingham Playhouse), Dear Elizabeth (Gate Theatre), Nevergreen (Arcola Theatre), Tom Brown’s Schooldays (Union Theatre), (Don’t) Touch Me (State of Flux/Leicester Curve).Film and Television includes: Neuromancer (Apple TV+), Riot Women (BBC), Shadow and Bone (Netflix), Plaggy Bag (BFI), The Q Factor (NHS) and more

Mary Malone is a London based actress. Theatre credits include Atri Banerjee's A Midsummer Night's Dream (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre), Josie Rourke's As You Like It (Soho Place), Hope Has a Happy Meal (Royal Court), fangirls (Lyric Hammersmith) and Abigail Thorn's The Prince (Southwark Playhouse), which she won a Broadway World UK Award for her performance. On screen, she is perhaps best known for starring as Aqua in Harlan Coben/Netflix series Missing You, as well as Trudy in Doctor Who. Other TV includes credits include Vera (ITV) and Chivalry (Channel 4).