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Fiona Mountford's rating
Company gets lost in As You Like It
By
Fiona Mountford
29 Apr 2009
The RSC certainly likes getting its actors to commit. The newly formed 44-strong ensemble has signed up for an eye-boggling two-and-a-half-year stint, a prospect that looked appetising for audiences after a glorious season opener with The Winter’s Tale a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, the company finds the going depressingly boggy underfoot in the Forest of Arden.
There should be lots to charm us in this delightful comedy of disguised identity and wooing by proxy but here too much is strain and struggle. Michael Boyd, directing for the first time since the triumphant Histories last year, cannot make it all cohere. His production shifts gradually from traditional to modern dress, and fighter-turned-lover Orlando slips oddly from RP to an Irish accent but whatever literal or metaphorical unbuttoning these changes might signify, there is no sense that we are being invited on an emotional journey with the characters.
Tom Piper’s tedious design makes an IKEA-look white backdrop for the court scenes open partially to reveal stacks of straw for a tree-less forest, a peculiar decision when a key plot point has Orlando (Jonjo O’Neill) carving his love poems for Rosalind (Katy Stephens), now banished and disguised as Ganymede, on the trunks. No wonder O’Neill looks as though being in love is a hassle he could well do without.
Stephens, magnificent in the Histories, doesn’t seem relaxed in this essentially comic role, giving a restless performance that involves an exhausting amount of belting about the stage. If she carries on like this, Orlando will have run off with one of the shepherdesses by the end of the honeymoon. Better is Celia, with Mariah Gale nicely suggesting the estrangement that she now feels from her dear friend because of Rosalind’s sudden infatuation. Touchstone and Jaques prove far too much of not such a good thing. As Paul Daniels almost said: As You Like It? Not a lot.
In rep until 3 October (0844 800 1110, www.rsc.org.uk).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Reader views (4)
A good night out, but not a classic interpretation.
The answer is in the title. The play was written to have many angles, threads and references which could be assembled by the audience in many different ways to make different points and pieces. It also has some, superficialy, crass changes in the basic characters of some major players, all the while having an obvious happy ending looming. This production attempted to provide one consistent story arc and failed because there isn't one there. We, the audience, were not allowed to savour and ponder over the elements that did not click into place with the chosen party-line on what the plot was doing. Instead the inconvenient elements were hushed up both literally and figuratively. In taking this approach the play lost it's key message, that we can all have a laugh despite the fact that we don't really have a clue about what's going on, and, our certainties about people, motivations, characters, sexualities and history are guesses at shadows. If we just have a laugh then our melancholy (jaques) is banished.
- jdN, Halifax, England, 09/08/2010 03:03
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As per previous comment, did Ms Mountford see the same play I did? Katy Stephens performance 'restless'?. I think not. Her portrayal of Rosalind was fantastic and left me wanting to see more of this fantastic actress. Well done to Ms Stephens and the rest of the emsemble - I have a feeling we will be seeing more of this award winning actress!
- Anon, West Midlands, 08/05/2009 10:51
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Were we watching the same show.I had a wonderful night at the theatre. I left feeling glad to be alive. Katy Stephens' Rosalind was full of life and light and romance.
- La Souris And Scarlett, chelmsford, 30/04/2009 09:56
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What a small-hearted review. Saw the show on Thursday night and I thought the whole production was about opening its heart up to the audience, which makes a mean-spirited little piece like this even more aggravating. The hundreds of people who walked down the street after my show were walking on air, and still laughing - having been given an extra wonderful treat that is typical of the generosity of this company. And Jacques - a revelation, such a story that character lives through and shares with us. I found him hugely moving at the end.
- Frustrated, London, 29/04/2009 13:19
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