As You Like It, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Sidney Harman Hall, Washington, DC

 

The cast during the opening scene of As You Like It at Shakespeare Theatre Company: this will be an As You Like It as you've never seen before. Credit: Teresa Castracane Photography.

I am the first to admit that I do not know Shakespeare’s As You Like It well, certainly not well enough to know when portions of Shakespeare’s poetry and prose have been deleted. I can recognize some obvious gender changes (Duke Frederick has become Dame Frances and Duke Senior is now Dame Senior) as well as anachronisms and throw-way added lines (when two characters need to hide at one point, one asks why and the other replies, “Because Shakespeare”). When I saw that the Shakespeare Theatre Company would be presenting As You Like It with a score of Beatles songs and in an environment of flower power and free love, I was skeptical. I need not have concerned myself. Just as they did a year ago with their Much Ado About Nothing set in the newsroom and studios of the fictitious cable TV Shakespeare News Network, the artists and craftspeople at Shakespeare Theatre Company create a world in which this concept is not only possible, it seems completely natural.

As You Like It is considered a “pastoral comedy,” in which characters from the urban environment (or, in this case, the court) are exiled to the country (in this case, the forest of Arden). The performance begins with the focus on the site of a wrestling match, the winner of which will receive a tidy sum. There are several minutes of somewhat-scripted but meticulously-choreographed wrestling as you might see on cable TV on a Saturday night. As the action proceeds, we learn that Orlando has been cheated out of his inheritance by his older brother Oliver. Oliver has plotted for Orlando to go into the ring with a prize-winning wrestler. Much to everyone’s surprise, Orlando manages to defeat the more experienced wrestler. He also spies the lovely Rosalind. Rosalind’s mother (Dame Senior) has been banished, but Rosalind allowed to stay because of her close connection with her cousin Celia. However, when Orlando wins, Dame Frances refuses to give the winner his due. Rosalind’s and Orlando’s eyes meet and the connection is instantaneous.

Dame Frances has had enough. Rosalind is ordered to leave the city, but Celia will not let her go alone. They concoct a scheme in which Rosalind will disguise herself as a young man (Ganymede) and Celia as a poor young woman (Aliena). Along with their employee Touchstone (the court fool), they escape to the forest of Arden and buy a farm from two locals, Silvius and Corin. Meanwhile, Adam, an elderly employee of Orlando’s family, warns Orlando that he must escape as Oliver plans to kill him. Surprise! They find themselves in the same forest. Quite by accident, Orlando and Adam find Dame Senior, whom Dame Frances had exiled, and several others, and they are taken in. Among Dame Senior’s companions is the melancholy Jaques, who delivers one of the most famous of Shakespeare’s speeches (“All the world’s a stage”).

Orlando cannot forget Rosalind. Leaving love notes on various trees in the forest, Orlando finally meets Rosalind (who is disguised as Ganymede).  Ganymede suggests that Orlando rehearse how he will woo Rosalind by addressing him (Ganymede) as Rosalind. Meanwhile, Touchstone has struck up a relationship with the lusty shepherdess, Audrey.

Jeff Irving as Orlando, Naomi Ngebulana as Celia, and Chelsea Rose as Rosalind (disguised as Ganymede) in As You Like It. Credit: Teresa Castracane Photography.

(Remember that in Shakespeare’s time Rosalind would have been played by a boy. At this point you would have a boy who is acting the role of a girl pretending to be a boy who is asking another boy to treat him as a girl. Got that?)

Oliver has been ordered by Dame Frances to bring Orlando back, or else! But when Oliver gets to the forest, he reconciles with Orlando, who has saved him from a mountain lion. Oliver then encounters Aliena (the disguised Celia), another instance of love at first sight. Farmer Silvius is pursuing Phoebe, who is enamored of Ganymede. Orlando is frustrated that he has not been able to find Rosalind. Ganymede (the disguised Rosalind, remember) tells everyone that he can make everything right the next morning. And just like that (and with no further explanation), the next morning all of the disguises are gone and the couples are united: Orlando and Rosalind, Oliver and Celia, Touchstone and Audrey, and Silvius and Phoebe.

The production drives home the themes of love in various forms, gender roles, identity, as well as fairness and loyalty. We also see the contrast between corruption and usurpation life at court (in the city) and the much more open, caring, and inclusive natural life of the forest.

The production was conceived by Daryl Cloran and Christopher Gaze on behalf of the Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival in Vancouver, British Columbia, and has also been presented at Shakespeare Festivals in Chicago and Milwaukee. Cloran has adapted and directed. The Beatles songs (25 of them, including a couple of reprises) fit so seamlessly into the plot and help emphasize or comment on the action, I can imagine that someone who had never been exposed to the play might think this is the way it was always intended. The clever staging by Cloran and choreographer/fight director Jonathan Hawley Purvis included several instances of simultaneous action on the stage and the bridge above, as well as climbing through the ropes on the wrestling ring.

The cast of As You Like It, with Jennifer Lines (center) as Dame Senior. Highlighting the production's scene, costume, and lighting designs. Credit: Teresa Castracane Photography.

Pam Johnson earns major kudos for the play’s scenic design, delivering two entirely different environments: the contemporary court (represented at the wrestling ring) and the forest. In the forest that Johnson has created, magical things can happen. (I’m reminded of Stephen Sondheim’s lyric, “Anything can happen in the woods.”) Perhaps the pièce de résistance scenically is the appearance of a Volkswagen minibus adorned with flowers, which draws quite a reaction from the audience.

I imagine that costume designer Carmen Alatorre, however, may have had the most fun recreating 1960s fashions and employing bell bottoms, fringed vests, platform shoes, paisleys, headbands, and psychedelic colors, among other tools of the period. Gerald King’s lighting design contrasts the garish world of wrestling and the lush flora of the forest. Sound design, musical direction, and wigs, all contributed to transporting us to the worlds of the play. There is no specific credit for musicians, so I am assuming that all instruments were played (beautifully) by cast members.

And what a talented (and mostly Canadian) cast they are! I note that they are Canadian because sometimes we are so unassumingly xenophobic that we forget that Canada has shared with the U.S. such performers as Christopher Plummer, Raymond Burr, Martin Short, Matthew Perry, Michael J. Fox, the Ryans Reynolds and Gosling, Catherine O’Hara, and Sandra Oh – not to mention Mary Pickford, who became known in the 1920s as “America’s sweetheart.”  

Chelsea Rose is winning in her sly portrayal of Rosalind with her eyes fixed firmly on the prize: the handsome (if sometimes inarticulate) Orlando, played with a touch of suave Elvis-ness by Jeff Irving. Rose appears equally comfortable as the exiled princess and in her masquerade as Ganymede. Irving conveys Orlando’s increasing exasperation at being unable to find his beloved Rosalind. Celia Ngebulana as Celia makes a fine partner-in-disguise for Rosalind. Celia ends up with Oliver, whose transition from evil to beloved brother is quickly accomplished, played by Matthew MacDonald-Bain. As Touchstone, Kayvon Khoshkam steals practically every scene in which he appears in his comically striped suit, Elton-inspired glasses, and platform shoes in a portrayal with hints of comic Rip Taylor. He is also responsible for “pre-show and comedic contributions,” according to the program. Khoshkam is well-matched by Emma Slipp as the bawdy Audrey. Playing both the tyrannical and vengeful Dame Frances as well as the wronged Dame Senior gives Jennnifer Lines an opportunity to create two very different sisters: one all bite and business and the other a rather mellow Earth mother with wire-rimmed glasses and her guitar. Ben Elliott as Silvius demonstrates puppy-like energy in his devotion to the disinterested Phoebe, played with haughtiness by Alexandra Lainfiesta. As the sardonic Jaques, Andrew Cownden provides sarcastic commentary from time to time, with a hairstyle that appears to have been inspired by Boris Johnson. Truly, there is not a weak link in the company.

The program listed all of the Beatles songs used in the show. I wish it had included who sang which. Not included was “Eleanor Rigby,” but her name is used as a character in the wrestling match prologue.

All of the songs fit the moment appropriately and are performed with gusto. Khoshkam as something of a ringmaster Touchstone cues us in on what happens when Orlando meets Rosalind with “She Loves You.” Cownden as Jaques delivers a biting “The Fool on the Hill,” which could easily have been inserted into Shakespeare’s original. Rose’s and Irving’s simultaneous “Eight Days a Week” at the end of the first portion of the show was well-staged and well-sung. Phoebe is the last character I would have expected to take on “Something,” but Lainfiesta plays it effectively, both in earnest and for laughs. “Here Comes the Sun” is the perfect choice for the events and attitudes of Dame Senior and her companions as they welcome Orlando and Adam to their little band of players. And, finally, what better way to end the play and sum it all up with than “All You Need Is Love,” since love does, indeed, win out in the end?

Shakespeare purists (and perhaps Beatles purists, too) might not approve of this hybrid of works by the 16^th century playwright and the 1960s musical icons, but most of the rest of us will certainly “like it” (or more!) as delivered. The production, originally slated to close December 30, has been extended to January 7, 2024. If you’re hoping that Santa will bring you laughs for Christmas, this is where to find them.

 

The cast of As You Like It as the couples are united at the finale: "All You Need Is Love." Credit: Teresa Castracane Photography.