A night of open-air fun
This summer’s production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It at the Globe breathes new life into this pastoral comedy in a show filled with song and teenage hormones. Designer Paul Wills has outdone himself in this play where loud costumes tell their own story alongside a bare set and a feast of percussion led by musical director Katie Richardson, writes Eugenia Sestini.
Brotherly love is hard to find at the start – the ruthless Duke Frederick has usurped the throne and his brother Duke Senior must leave the comforts of the court in the direction of the woods. Duke Senior’s friend Sir Rowland de Boys has died, and more bickering brothers enter the scene: Oliver and Orlando de Boys. Oliver is left in charge of his younger brother, but he mistreats Orlando and denies him an education. Fueled by outrage and pumped with adrenaline, Orlando manages to defeat the court wrestler in front of Duke Senior’s daughter Rosalind, who is duly impressed by Orlando’s display of strength and muscle.
To balance out all this testosterone-filled feuding, we are introduced to a much more loving relationship: Rosalind and Celia, cousins and best friends. When love-struck Rosalind is also forced by her uncle to live in exile, Celia cannot envisage life without her cousin, and they both flee to the Forest of Arden, where they assume new identities. Tired of his brother’s abuse, Orlando also heads in the direction of the forest, where he will spend his time consumed by thoughts of Rosalind.
The costumes take us from the court – with its stiff crinolines, high pouf wigs, and ruffles galore – to the forest, where Rosalind assumes the male alias of Ganymede, an overly stylish shepherd, while her cousin Celia takes on the persona of Aliena, a panto-esque shepherdess that instantly brings to mind Little Bo Peep, her outfit a riot of pink, complete with bonnet and staff. The cousins find themselves sticking out like a sore thumb among the demure locals, with their ragged, beige clothing.
In Arden, reality bends enough for Duke Senior not to recognise his own family and for Orlando to mistake Rosalind for a man. Freedom allows both cousins to unleash their desires, away from the stiffness of their noble upbringing. Lola Shalam displays excellent comedic timing as Rosalind/Ganymede, playful and swooning while also controlling and, towards the end, hysterical. Gracie Oddie-James brings to life an equal part giggly and awkward Celia/Aliena, her frilly shepherdess outfit unleashing her innermost teenage angst once in the woods. Award-winning multi-hyphenate Charlie Josephine (co-directing the show with Sean Holmes) makes gawky Orlando both endearing and humorous. Jonnie Broadbent steals the show as Touchstone, the court jester, wearing barely any clothes other than a diaper-like loincloth and over-the-knee stockings, regularly engaging with the audience in panto style.
Female desire is at the centre of the play and this production in particular, where every woman, from the cousins devoted to each other to shepherdess Phoebe and goatherd Audrey, will be consumed by love for one or more people.
Opening with a bare stage of blank canvases in the court of Duke Frederick, we will see the shift to the Forest of Arden as artists paint trees before our eyes, adding details along the show, to culminate in four weddings where court and forest will collide in celebration and with a whole new set of outfits, this time with a Scandinavian style.
With its regular breaking of the fourth wall, over-the-top costumes and spectacular cast, As You Like It makes the characters relatable to a modern audience and offers a night of open-air fun.
Until 25th October.
Booking and full details: https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/
