Review – As You Like It, Royal Shakespeare Company at The Holloway Garden Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 24th July 2024

Posted on July 25, 2024 by therealchrisparkle

Tucked behind the main Royal Shakespeare Theatre building and constructed on the gardens by the river you can currently find the Holloway Garden Theatre, first opened in 2021 as a way of Getting Theatre Back in those miserable Covid times, and now freshly renewed for a summer season of As You Like It, the perfect outdoors play, in a brand new production directed by Brendan O’Hea.

The perfect outdoors play? Yes, because apart from a few introductory scenes in Duke Frederick’s Court, it all takes place in the Forest of Arden, a mere hop skip and a jump from Stratford-upon-Avon; although I’m not sure lionesses ever roamed Sheep Street as they do in this particular Forest. But the play is awash with woodland glades, notes pinned on trees, shepherds and shepherdesses, and exiled gentry living the country life as best they can. Odd, perhaps, then, that Liam Bunster’s set doesn’t give one nod to greenery or flora, but instead is a rather sterile blue wooden affair that looks more like a packing crate than a grassy nook. In fact, there’s no “scenery” as such, nor indeed “furniture” anywhere to be seen – so at least that allows us the audience to use our imagination to create our own personal Ardens.

Normally, with an RSC production, you can tell from the start that the director has a vision for the play – whether it be transplanting it to a different era or location, or discovering insights due to some creative gender-swapping, or promoting a theme from within the text to give it some extra depth. There’s no obvious vision for this production; and, at 85 minutes without a break it sometimes feels its main purpose is just to get to the end as quickly as possible. To be fair, there is some argument for doing that with an open-air production; if the weather changes at the Holloway Garden Theatre, there is no hiding place from wind and rain apart from whatever coats you brought or a classy RSC rain poncho.

This is a distinctly shortened version; and whatever benefits that brings – concentrating on the main thrust of the plot and, dare I say it, Shakespeare’s Best Bits – inevitably it suffers in other ways. One of the cuts is to remove some of Touchstone’s pontifications; personally, I think that’s a shame, as I rather like his wordy comings and goings. Part of the charm of the play is the balance between the Courtiers and the Country dwellers; in this production, the Countryfolk distinctly play second fiddle and at times you feel the production rather ignores them. A good example of this is how, because of the doubling-up of roles, Touchstone and Audrey’s marriage is sidelined in the final nuptial scene; so there are three couples, not four, at the end. This creates an imbalance and doesn’t give equal weight to their relationship. Another side effect of rattling through the play is that some of the plot developments seem to happen extremely suddenly, making what is already a slightly unbelievable plot even more unbelievable at times.

There are, however, some splendid aspects of this production. Nearly all the cast also play instruments throughout the show and this device fits seamlessly into the text. The play has a number of songs, which frequently today come across as archaic and somewhat out of place. However, Catherine Jayes’ music is totally beguiling and beautiful, and with the entrancing and evocative voice of Natasha Magigi as Amiens, this is the best music in a Shakespearean context I’ve heard for decades.

Also, for no apparent reason, apart from the sheer fun of it, many of the cast use strong local accents for their characters; so we have a Geordie Jaques, a Brummie Duke Senior, and an Irish Celia. Somehow, these accents add to the musicality of the production, and certainly give an extra dimension to the comedy of the play.

The performances are universally excellent. Letty Thomas is everything you would expect from a Rosalind; and especially in her role of Ganymede leads Orlando a merry dance of humiliation in her encouragement of him to be more upfront with his wooing. Christina Tedders’ Celia is outstanding, making much more of the role than usual – full of fun and enthusiasm, giving Celia a real personality. Luke Brady is also superb as Orlando; having injured his ankle, Mr Brady played the part seated at the side of the stage – a true trouper indeed – and it’s a credit to his perfectly pitched performance that the production lost nothing as a result. This did, of course, lead to an unexpectedly humorous sequence where Orlando wrestles Charles; the sight of Peter Dukes playing the swaggering chap in a deftly choreographed sequence of one-sided wrestling holds will stay with all of us for a long time, I suggest. Mr Dukes is also excellent as the exiled Duke, serenely conveying his character’s ability to maintain courtly standards in an unforgiving environment.

Chris Nayak gives two great performances as the usurping Duke and the wetly forlorn Silvius, and Trevor Fox is an authoritatively melancholy Jaques – strongly emphasising the character’s cynicism. Duncan Wisbey creates a light-footed and physically cheeky Touchstone the clown, and Susannah van den Berg gives great support as Le Beau and Audrey.

This is a basic production – in the sense that it doesn’t highlight any special aspects or themes, or transport us to another time and place; this is firmly Shakespearean, set on a Wooden O. If the idea behind it is to provide a decent introduction to the Bard for children or Shakespeare-newbies, then I judge this a success. However, if you know the play well and you’re looking for some hidden depths, you might be disappointed. The production continues, with regular 2pm and 5pm performances, at the Holloway Garden Theatre until 1^st September.

Production photos by Marc Brenner

Three-sy Does It!

Review – As You Like It, RSC at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 11th July 2023

Posted on July 12, 2023 by therealchrisparkle

There’s currently a curious interest in theatre where the production is designed to draw the attention of the audience to rehearsal proceedings and backstage insights. A prime example is The Motive and the Cue at the National – and from December at the Noel Coward – which details the creative process that led to the Burton/Gielgud Hamlet on Broadway in 1964. Omar Elerian’s new production of As You Like It that opened at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre last month puts yet another perspective on a backstage approach to a production. Here we have a group of (they won’t mind me saying it) veteran actors, many of whom were in a production of the same play in 1978; and they have come together (with a few thrusting younger performers) to re-enact for us their 45-year-old performances.

They weren’t the only veterans at last night’s performance. Not only does this show clearly attract an older demographic, but I also clearly remember the 18-year-old me going to see this production when it moved to London’s Aldwych Theatre in September 1978.

Interestingly, none of the actors on stage in Stratford was in that Aldwych show – although I did notice one leading actor from the 1978 production in our audience! I recall how I was bowled over by the production, and for many years it was probably in the top ten shows I’d seen. I have a feeling that some of the music in the current production – the arrangement of Under the Greenwood Tree for example – is either the same as, or extremely similar to, the musical arrangements in the 1978 production. So for me, I also had a lot of opportunity to wallow in the nostalgia of the evening.

Ana Inés Jabares-Pita’s design primarily concerns itself with a rehearsal room, where the actors present the play, although with all the pictures and written sheets on the back wall it reminded me more of a police murder hunt case room. Of course, it’s a totally artificial presentation in many ways. As the cast gradually arrive on stage at the beginning, they natter with the audience until a stage manager gives the nod that the show is due to start. Then Michael Bertenshaw, who plays Oliver, addresses the audience to explain what’s about to take place. On more than one occasion, James Hayes (Touchstone) turns to the audience to remind them that he is a classical actor, implying that he’s scraping the barrel by appearing in this show – indeed, on one exit, he adds to Shakespeare’s text, “I’m wasted here”. You get the drift. For reasons known to others but not to me, a rock band slowly descends on the stage like a deus ex machina at the end of the first act – giving the cast a chance to have a bop and a boogie. The modern cage contraption that forms this piece of rigging is totally at odds with the bucolic charm we’re straining to imagine and it gets in the way. Admittedly it lifts early in the second act, taking Orlando with it – heaven knows why.

There are some nice moments where the older age of the actors is deliberately at odds with the younger age of the characters – David Fielder and Celia Bannerman as Silvius and Phoebe, for example, put an interesting slant on young romantic love. And Rosalind’s reworked epilogue, which reflects the autumn of everyone’s years, is a neat piece of writing – although, I’m not sure it was completely necessary, the epilogue as written by Shakespeare contains ageless pieces of advice! However, I couldn’t help asking myself, beyond entertainment for entertainment’s sake – and of course, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, what actually is the point of this production? And I don’t mean that negatively – it’s great to get a new perspective, and for the most part it works. But I got the impression that they were doing this production this way simply because they could; to be honest, it’s more “filler” than “killer”.

There are some lulls in the proceedings too; the second act suffers from a lack of scenery and a lack of costume, and whereas it’s easy to imagine the Duke’s Court in the Rehearsal Room it’s far harder to envisage woodland glades. At the end of the show, the back wall gives way to reveal a beautiful tableau of the Forest of Arden – it’s as idyllic a presentation as you could possibly imagine. And it’s at that point that you realise that that – the Forest – is the main thing that has been lacking in the show. The episodic nature of the later courtship scenes, with Silvius, Phoebe, Audrey and so on, are normally fun as they dart playfully all over the stage forest, but in this production this all feels very static – and I confess, I did get a little bored, which is the cardinal sin of the theatre. It’s also when the forest is revealed, and the actors move towards it that the sense of nostalgia is at its most acute; when their voices start to merge with the recorded voices of the past, it feels like they are genuinely going back in time.

There are some splendid performances that really keep the show lifted. Geraldine James as Rosalind and Maureen Beattie as Celia are a perfect pairing, and the evening revolves around them completely. James Hayes brings tons of comedy to Touchstone, and Malcolm Sinclair proves himself to be a remarkably youthful Orlando. Robin Soans does a terrific good cop bad cop routine as the two Dukes – Senior and Frederick; and amongst the younger members of the cast, I particularly enjoyed Rose Wardlaw, especially as Le Beau, realising after a while that he was meant to be French, and Tyreke Leslie whose calm quiet voicing of the role of Adam was very touching.

It’s very quirky, at times it’s very funny, occasionally it’s rather moving, but most of all it’s very charming. Perhaps it’s fair to say this is more of an experiment than an actual production per se, but it succeeds on those grounds. Despite its faults it’s still very entertaining and I’ve never seen a Shakespeare play performed this way before, so that’s a first!

P. S. I did like the fact that, unusually (but like the 1978 production) they didn’t cut Touchstone’s speech about rhetoric, which culminates in his insightful observation, “Your If is your only peacemaker – much virtue in If”. Remembering this production when I was writing an essay about this play at university back in 1980, I pounced upon this line as the key to the whole play, which I determined was all about the art of compromise. I read my essay as my tutor listened in stony silence. His verdict at the end was the brief but damning comment: “Possible interpretation”. In other words, I got it wrong.

Production photos by Ellie Kurttz

Four They’re Jolly Good Fellows!

Review – As You Like It, RSC, Royal Shakespeare Company at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 21st February 2019

Posted on February 22, 2019 by therealchrisparkle

The prospect of seeing another production of As You Like It always fills me with excitement because it’s one of Shakespeare’s true crowd-pleasers. The cheeky, jokey relationship between Rosalind and Celia; the challenge of how to characterise the melancholy Jaques; the knowing sniggering of Orlando chatting up Ganymede when we all know it’s Rosalind; the rustic tomfoolery of Touchstone, Audrey, Silvius and Phoebe. Then there are also those little heart-warming moments, like Adam pledging allegiance to Orlando, and Orlando’s subsequent care for Adam when his life is almost at an end; and Celia facing up to her vicious father and refusing to leave Rosalind’s side. There’s a lot of kind friendship going on here.

I confess; I struggled to identify director Kimberley Sykes’ vision for this production. My only clue came from an article in the programme about how plays such as these would have been very much performed to and for the audience in Shakespeare’s time. As a result, there’s quite a bit of fourth-wall breaking. It’s as though they’ve taken Rosalind’s final speech, an epilogue delivered directly to the audience, and worked backward from there.

To be fair, some of this works extremely well. Whilst Orlando and “Ganymede” are wooing each other and pretending to get married, Celia joins us at the edge of the stage and casts tutting glances at individual audience members as if to share the thought, jeez how much longer is this going on? She grabs a programme off someone and tries to identify who’s on stage – and then she finds a funny photo in the programme and cackles with inappropriate laughter whilst pointing at it and others, just like an ill-behaved audience member might. Personally, I found that “irreverent audience member-act” hilarious. In another scene, Touchstone’s camera lens disintegrated so he gave it to an audience member to hold. On yet another occasion, Rosalind and Celia tried to outstare a gentleman in the front row. All these little incidents really helped to build a relationship between cast and crowd. Less so the moment shortly before the interval when Orlando got four people out of the audience to hold up pieces of paper that, when put together, read “Rosalind”. Rarely has so much audience disruption been caused for so little dramatic or comic gain.

Other effects bludgeon us into some form of reaction. Touchstone is dressed throughout in homage to Scottish/American magician/comedian Jerry Sadowitz. Don’t ask me why. The arrival by the banished characters at the Forest of Arden is marked by the stage lights glowing bright, removal of the backdrop so we can see all the backstage gubbins, members of the cast walking round chatting willy-nilly, and a disembodied voice requiring Miss Stanton to appear on stage to perform her All The World’s a Stage routine (even though we hadn’t got that far into the play yet). Again, don’t ask me why. Many productions do away with the appearance of Hymen, the god of marriage, in the final scene, because it heavily detracts from any sense of realism. Not so with this production, where the stage is dominated by the biggest Hymen (if you’ll pardon the expression) you’re ever likely to see. Out of all proportion, it’s grotesque and ungainly and looks like an accident in a papier-mâché factory.

This is a very strange evening at the theatre. On the one hand, you have some superb performances and a few laugh out loud moments that really take your breath away. On the other hand, the production has a strange energy-sapping effect, and by the time Rosalind/Ganymede has engineered the four-way marriage celebrations, you really just want to get out for some fresh air. Although the production aims to bring the audience and play closer together, it’s only Rosalind, Orlando and Celia who sustain your interest. The plights and intrigues of the other characters can go hang for all you care. Mrs Chrisparkle wore her bored look for much of the evening – OK I realise, that might have been because of me, but I sense (and hope) it was the Arden brigade.

On a lighter note, the love triangle of Touchstone, Audrey and William is enhanced by having Tom Dawze’s William act as a sign-language interpreter between the other two characters; Charlotte Arrowsmith delivers all Audrey’s lines by sign language and this excellent element of inclusivity lends an extra dimension and weight to their relationship. Recently we’ve seen quite a lot of gender-bending in productions of the classics, and this production features female portrayals of Jaques, Le Beau, Amiens and Martext, all of which help you to see the familiar characters from a different perspective.

And there’s also a female Silvius – now portrayed as Silvia. This means Phoebe is now being pestered by a lovelorn young shepherdess; fair enough. However, the appropriateness of this change all unravels at the final scene. Ganymede promises to marry Phoebe if ever he marries woman. But when it’s revealed that he is a she, Phoebe’s reaction is if sight and shape be true, why then my love adieu – in other words, “oh no, you’re a girl, I only fancy boys”. Nevertheless she’s still instantly married off to a girl! I appreciate that the words of Hymen could imply that he has no problem with equal marriage – which, of course, is great – but it’s being imposed on Phoebe and for me, it didn’t make sense and it didn’t sit comfortably.

Let’s concentrate on the good things. Lucy Phelps as Rosalind – what a tremendous performance! A perfect blend of mischief and nobility, of girlish goofiness and authoritative courtier. Whether she be sharing a joke with her friend or trying to extricate herself from very serious situations, she constantly reveals little insights about her character and she is so completely believable. Very funny, very dignified; Ms Phelps absolutely nails it.

Sophie Khan Levy, too, is perfect as Celia; long-suffering, easily giving in to temptation, and wickedly sarcastic. I loved how she transformed herself into a rock; and how her cynical side just melted away when she encounters the dreamy Jacques de Bois. She and Ms Phelps form a terrific double-act, both comic and dramatic. David Ajao’s Orlando is a simple, good-hearted soul, exuding enthusiasm in everything he does, and a great match for Ms Phelps as neither can contain their giggly romantic interest in each other.

Sophie Stanton’s Jaques is a very intelligent reading of the role, full of wistful thought and interrupted emotion; calmly and unhysterically delivered. She doesn’t recite All the World’s a Stage like some powerful, previously well thought-out party piece, but as though the idea is coming to her as she says it; a concept developing in her brain as she works her way through the journey of An Average Life. The staging of What shall he have that kill’d the deer is less successful; the combination of Ms Stanton’s eerie vocal delivery and Graeme Brookes’ First Lord’s cervine scampering around the stage makes the audience uncertain whether to laugh or be concerned for their mental wellbeing.

Antony Byrne excels at the dual roles of the two Dukes, one nice, one nasty; and I enjoyed the way the one became the other at that otherwise strange border crossing into the Forest of Arden. Sandy Grierson’s eccentric and perceptive Touchstone is a lot to take on board, and treads a fine line between annoyingly comic and comically annoying – which is perfectly reasonable for that character. Richard Clews’ Adam is a noble and moving performance – with a delightful singing voice too, and there’s a nicely bumbling characterisation of Corin by Patrick Brennan. Emily Johnstone’s Madame Le Beau steals every scene in the first act as she teeters into the sinking grass with her stilettos and speaks her servilities with wonderful emptiness.

There’s no doubt that the fantastic cast carry this rather underwhelming production. It could do with a few more cuts and a little tightening up; at just over three hours including the interval it is a little trying at times. However, it’s worth paying the ticket price to see Lucy Phelps alone! In repertoire at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre until 31st August and then across the country between September and April 2020.