In a spirited and visually stunning production at Shakespeare’s Globe in London, comic merriment and elaborate costumes are punctuated by moments of quietly moving reverie. Co-directed by Sean Holmes and Charlie Josephine, this performance is a giggling caper of cheek and charm.
As You Like It is a tale that dances with concepts of liberation, transformation and identity. In this production, the game of disguise is played long before its figures embark on their tournaments of gender. Greeting their audience in decadent gowns that flirt with the late 17th-18th centuries, the costumes reflect the pageantry of court.
The grandeur of Duke Frederick’s court – reminiscent of Louis XVI’s Versailles – contrasts dramatically with the simplicity of its backdrop: a series of interlocking, stark white canvases. The resulting dichotomy suggests that these characters are already living in an eternal dress-up game of pretence.
Shakespeare at his most playful
Lola Shalam shines as Rosalind throughout this performance. Girlishly excitable, her arch humour and blissful love for Orlando compliments her character’s lyrical charm. Josephine’s Orlando is a man of the people; his conversational delivery and estuary accent elicit a down-to-earth sympathy, casting the character as a working-class hero. The pair’s instant attraction to each other results in a slapstick of giddy awkwardness, amplified by Rosalind’s transformation into Ganymede.
The comedy of this play cannot be understated. Shakespeare’s humour is often forgotten in the shade of his melancholic tragedies. But, Shakespeare is undeniably funny, and this is sublimely enacted by each cast member. Jonnie Broadbent is a jocular delight as the amorous Touchstone, his lacy ruff and lusty jollity seducing his audience. Gracie Oddie-James is similarly endearing, excellently portraying the role of Celia with aristocratic pomp.
The audience’s occasional singalong participation to Katie Richardson’s folksy music is similarly amusing, and avoids feeling trite. In this play, the jest and witticisms of the verse illuminates its subversive subjects – from same-sex passion between Orlando and Ganymede to the spectrum of class culture within the forest.
A forest alive with possibility
Amidst its humorous frolics, the players also offer moments of touching reflection. Katherine Pearce as Jacques is serenely affecting in her “All the world’s a stage” soliloquy. Similarly, Colm Gormley extends a poignant rationale for his simple life: “I earn that I eat, get that / I wear, owe no man hate, envy no man’s happiness.”
The set design by Paul Wills offers Shakespeare’s Forest of Arden a touch of magic, turning it into a character itself. Gradually painted upon the austere blank canvases by scenic artist Emily Carne, it eventually blooms with the developing love stories themselves, its role evolves with our characters.
This production succeeds because it embraces As You Like It in all its contradictions. Riotously comic, yet unexpectedly tender, it is steeped in Shakespearean artifice. Holmes and Josephine have created a rendition both playful and poignant, giving its audience a fresh take on an enduring drama.
As You Like It runs until 25 August. For more details, click here.
Featured image credit: Marc Brenner
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