Theatre Trip: As You Like It

AS YOU LIKE IT

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

Date: 23rd August (Thursday), 2:00pm
Seats: Yard (Standing)

This was something I meant to do last summer, but I finally found a great show and a good time. As You Like It is one of the comedies and I wanted to catch a matinee because you stand outside, exposed to the elements. And luckily, I was able to go for a run in the morning, have it rain quite heavily around 9:30, but be clear and sunny by 1:00! Perfect weather for the outside theatre.

I started my day out by walking from Waterloo station along the Southbank, through the food market (getting my favourite duck fat french fries with truffle mayo), to the Tate Modern where I browsed the shop and admired the architecture until show time.

I had paid the grand sum of £5 for a yard standing ticket, so arrived around 1:40 to get my spot. I made a friend while I waited named Tegan who had arrived from the States that day and was directing this play next year with children, which was quite interesting to get her perspective on some things.

The plot of As You Like It is rather confusing. Essentially, it is about two cousins (Rosalind and Celia) who are banished into the forest, where Rosalind dressed as a boy (Ganymede) to avoid being attacked and they meet the man (Orlando) who Rosalind loves. She, while pretending to be Ganymede, tests Orlando's love for her by trying to persuade her that she doesn't. Along the way there are two warring brother Dukes, a fool and his love, a sad lonely man, and in the end, a quadruple wedding by the goddess Hymen (yep, that's her name). It's all a bit bonkers but somehow still fun and has a lovely happy ending!

In this production, there were elements of genderblind casting. In particular, the Dukes were played by a woman, Audrey was played by a man (although I get the impression that happens in many productions), but more importantly both Orlando and Rosalind were swapped - Orlando played by a girl and Rosalind as a boy. As the play already incorporates elements of gender swapping (Rosalind becoming Ganymede in the forest), it wasn't as strange as I had thought it would be and I actually quite enjoyed. The few lines Rosalind had which were like "if I were a man..." were made more funny by this element, I think.

While there were only 12 actors in the Globe Ensemble, there are twice as many parts as that! So some actors played 2 or even 3 parts throughout the play. My favourites were the Duke Senior/Duke Frederick/Sir Oliver Martext (Helen Schlesinger), who was very funny and had a great pretend horse throughout the play, Jaques (Pearce Quigley) who was dour and sarcastic, and Oliver/Duke Frederick's First Lord (Shubham Saraf) did really well and engaged with the audience in a really authentic way. I loved Celia (Nadia Nadarajah), who was not only a brilliant actress, but also deaf! She did all her lines by sign language, and Rosalind was often echoing elements which we may not have been able to understand otherwise. It was done in such a clever and authentic way and was really engaging to watch. Touchstone (Colin Hurley) the fool was a bit hard to understand, but I think he had one of the biggest roles in the show and definitely had a lot of lines to learn! That's really cool to watch him reel off line after line of crazy complicated Shakespeare lines without a flaw. Orlando (Bettrys Jones) was really engaging and believable, and her size (especially compared to Rosalind) made her even more funny! They made a really believable couple. But the best actor by quite a long shot was Rosalind (Jack Lackey), who managed to nail being a lady, being a lad in the forest, and even being a man acting as a lady pretending to be a lad in the forest! He was funny, engaging, believable... Just brilliant. And he looked a little like David Tennant!

While Shakespearean language can be complicated to understand at times, the way this was presented meant that even if I didn't get every word, I always got the gist behind the meaning. I guess that's the genius of Shakespeare.

And note to self, next time don't go to a standing matinee if you're sore all over. Aching for days...