As You Like It a clever comedy of truly Shakespearian proportions
If you’re looking for a light-hearted romp then Shakespeare in the Park’s production of As You Like It is for you. (For those of you who don’t know your As You Like It from your All’s Well That Ends Well here’s a hint: it’s the one with Shakespeare’s famous “All the world’s a stage” monologue.) It’s a comedic look at love mistaken identities and bad-converted-to-good. Duke Frederick (Stratford veteran Haysam Kadri) banishes his brother Duke Senior (Stephen Hair) and Duke Senior’s daughter Rosalind to the country. Duke Frederick’s own daughter Celia flees with Rosalind who has disguised herself as a man Ganymede. While in the forest Rosalind encounters Orlando the man she’s in love with. He has also sought refuge there after learning of his brother’s plot to murder him. Rosalind takes advantage of her false identity to tutor Orlando in the ways of wooing. To add to the confusion a shepherd falls in love with Ganymede not knowing that he is really a she. Director Martin Fishman sets the action in the late ’60s/early ’70s. If he’s trying to draw any deep parallels between the play’s themes and the "make love not war" era they were lost on me. The period seems merely a device to inject some cheesy humour into the production. If an audience fails to see the fun in a battle of wit about love they can at least get a laugh out of the cast undulating to the “Age of Aquarius” or a wrestling match reminiscent of the WWE. In any Shakespeare production the most important thing is the actors’ ability to communicate the meaning of the Bard’s words to the audience. Except for the female leads’ struggle with the language at the outset of the play the cast delivered Shakespeare’s dialogue smoothly and confidently. As You Like It is set primarily in a forest making it an ideal fit for an outdoor staging. As such the production could make better use of the built-in set that Prince’s Island provides. Instead too much of the action is carried out in front of small flats bearing poor imitations of forest scenery. The play celebrates bucolic life. When the audience first meets the exiled Duke he is waxing poetic on the country’s charms. Why then do he and his courtiers wear camouflage attire suggestive of military uniforms? This costume choice was distracting and didn’t fit with the pastoral theme of the play. Is it a sartorial reference to the Vietnam War? Are the costumes a comment on the invasion of outsiders in a foreign land exploiting it to their own advantage? Amongst all the fluff that is As You Like It I must give credit to Mike Tan who plays Orlando. Orlando is so lovesick that he runs around the forest putting love poems on trees for Rosalind. It would be easy for an actor to fall into a tongue-in-cheek portrayal of such a character. Tan manages to avoid that trap and conveys Orlando’s sincerity convincingly. Likewise Kristy Lannan is delightful in her role as the dim-witted country maid Audrey. The production ran nearly two hours and just before intermission I admit to playing peek-a-boo with the toddler beside me rather than watching the play in front of me. However the pace picked up considerably in the final act. My one disappointment with the grand finale was that the actors seemed to anticipate the ending — they registered little if any surprise when Rosalind shed the persona of Ganymede and revealed her identity. As a result I felt cheated — the production built to a climax that never happened. Overall however I found it a spirited and playful production. Unlike some other Shakespeare productions I’ve seen I will not pretend that this one made me think. It’s a relaxing way to spend a summer evening.
