As You Like It - Bell Shakespeare

Overview

This review is of the Sydney run of this production in March 2015.

In Bell Shakespeare’s production of As You Like It, directed by co-artistic director Peter Evans, little time is wasted on introductions. Instead, we are plunged straight into the action. In the first ten minutes there are two wrestling matches, one a tussle between feuding brothers and another actual wrestling match, which one of the aforementioned brothers competes in, albeit in disguise. A woman is exiled for treason and decides to hunt for her father, but not before disguising herself as a man.

With minimal warning, it seems as if everybody has decided to bung on a disguise and go tromping through the forest. Nobody has brought any food, but everyone looks super-cool swanning around complaining that they are starving to death. The plot is madcap, the jokes thick and fast, and there’s a distinct feeling that the forest is not the only greenery involved in this equation. This is a great romp through one of Shakespeare’s classic comedies.

So. Orlando (Charlie Garber) is the youngest son of a recently deceased nobleman. He resents his brother (Dorje Swallow) for withholding his inheritance and decides to run away. Rosalind (Zahra Newman), the daughter of a banished Duke is herself banished from court. All of this happens five minutes after these two have fallen madly in love, so it’s a remarkable stroke of luck that both of them have just gone prancing into the forest of Arden. Of course, Rosalind is now passing herself off as a man called Ganymede, but it’s true love, right? They’ll figure it out.

The look of this thing is pretty bonkers — part May Day festivities, part old lady’s bathroom. Michael Hankin’s set changes from ye olde indeterminate space to a trippy and vibrant forest with just a quick drop of the flies. Kate Aubrey’s costumes are similarly eclectic and colourful; this is a world shared by dandies, go-go dancers and graduates from the Maria von Trapp school of draperies fashion.

Garber and Newman are very capable as those smitten, but the show belongs to the offsiders. Kelly Paterniti is sass personified and a great foil for Rosalind as her scheme begins to unravel. Tony Taylor as Orlando’s manservant, Adam, performs his duties with much understated humour, a victorious blend of Jeeves and Baldrick. Wandering through the scenes, oblivious to the central plot and dispensing a gravelly combination of wisdom and nonsense, John Bell’s vagrant philosopher Jacques is also a pleasure.

At 2 hours and 40, this is no small commitment, but if you’re in the mood, Notting Hill has nothing on As You Like It.