If you have tickets to see Kimberley Sykes’ production of As You Like It with the RSC this year, be aware that you may become part of the action.
As You Like It is one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, with romance, humour, mistaken identities, a fool and of course the famous seven ages of man speech.
The main strengths of this production for me were the performances. David Ajao was a likeable Orlando and Lucy Phelps a feisty Rosalind. We saw the understudy for Touchstone, Leo Wan, who was fantastic. As is common in contemporary productions, the genders of some characters had been changed. Sophie Stanton played Jacques, and it was such a shame that her quietness as part of the melancholy of the character meant that it was difficult to hear her at times. However, changing Silvius to Silvia didn’t make sense in the context of the play, because Phoebe’s discovery that Ganymede is in fact Rosalind shouldn’t put her off, if she was then willing to marry a woman, namely Silvia. There are other characters whose gender could have been changed that would have had a bigger and better impact.
The set used was very bare, with the audience being included, as Orlando gave members some of his poems to Rosalind to hold. The bareness worked well for the most part but it did seem strange for me to then bring on an enormous puppet as Hymen in the wedding scenes, when everything else had been so simple. I also wasn’t keen on the transition from life in the court to the forest of Arden, with backstage being revealed, a wardrobe being wheeled on, the house lights on and the actors changing on stage.
Despite the strong performances, the great chemistry between the cast and the humorous pantomime elements and audience interaction, this production just didn’t quite hit the mark for me.
playsmanyparts 