As You Like It

Last year Peter Evans brought us a version of “The Dream” that was sheer magic. This year however, his wand has a definite crack in it and, try as it might, the cast was unable to weave a spell to transport us. Don’t misunderstand – it is a very good quality production, but it isn’t breathtakingly special in a way we have come to expect from this company.

Shakespeare’s light as air and deliciously witty Rom-Com actually feels heavy handed and weighed down in this world-weary Forest of Arden, despite Michael Hankin’s romantic set of vines of flowers. It plods rather than skips; it lifts our spirits only to drop them again for being too heavy some 30 seconds later. Of course, like so many of The Bard’s plays, cross dressing plays a huge part – and one can imagine that audiences roared in Elizabethan times at a man playing a woman, playing a man. The device quite literally leads to some quasi homo-erotic interaction between Rosalind and Orlando. This could have been exciting and modern if the director had let it run more freely; explored Orlando’s confused desire. After all, there’s a very modern subtext that we fall in love with an individual – not a gender. Alas, this production offers nothing that daring – it’s all very safe, all very staid, and passion is something to be kept well hidden – Rosalind even wears a stylish pants suit rather than true male attire. It’s all a bit bland.

Rosalind is one of the great female roles in theatre, possibly the first true feminist, and there isn’t any doubt that Zahra Newman is a spectacular actress. But for much of the time (particularly when in the rather ugly 1950s apricot dress of Act 1 – given that 50s fashion was so fabulous, it’s hard to believe this looked so wrong) she seems ill at ease with her “love at first sight” reaction to the less than ‘ripped and hot’ Orlando. Pure lust might hold the relationship together – but there’s no chemistry between these two. Charlie Garber gives us an affable Orlando, but not one any woman would swoon over.

Stuck in the middle…neither contemporary nor traditional … the production struggles to find its feet and it isn’t helped that much of the text has been pared back to allow for some pretty average 50s rock style music to make songs of Shakespeare’s verse.

With the exception of Gareth Davies (Touchstone) who pulls out all the comic stops and gets great laughs (and even his manic performance has an edge of desperation) it is left to the veterans to show us all how to do a Shakespeare comedy.

Tony Taylor – a gift to Australian theatre right back to the days of The Pram Factory – is a sheer delight as Adam and Corin. Particularly as the former, he shows finesse, style, class and comic timing much to be envied. It’s a sophisticated performance where every nuance, every gesture, every expression has a purpose. He is just sublime.

There is little left to say about the truly great John Bell. He gives us a Le Beau who minces with his tongue firmly in his cheek and a twinkle in his eye…. a youthful busybody stuck in an old man’s body. But it is as Jaques that he truly gives a master-class in understanding character. Not settling for the description of “melancholy”– Bell taps the well of world-weary jadedness. He’s “been there, done that” and there are no surprises left for him. When he spoke the first line of one of Shakespeare’s most famous speeches “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players”, goosebumps rose on my arms.  He speaks that line in throwaway manner to the Duke (well played by Alan Dukes) with an “and your point is?” underlying sense of sardonic resignation. This is no big deal…it’s just the way Jaques sees the world, and it’s worth seeing the production just for Bell. He and Taylor come close to creating the magic that is missing elsewhere.

Coral Drouyn

Images: As You Like It company ®Rush