As You Like It

Shakespeare is having a good run this year: Othello, with a tight focus on jealousy; a ritualised Titus Andronicus; a sprightly Much Ado at the MTC; and, with Christopher Marlowe, The Breath of Kings, a compendium of Henry VI – Parts 1, 2 & 3 and Richard III. 

We might speculate on these choices and the very varied – and heavily edited – presentations they have received, but all seem to demonstrate the resilience of Shakespeare’s plays. There’s also producers and directors’ suspicions that contemporary audiences just won’t sit through full-length productions any more...

This exuberant, perfectly judged production of As You Like It at St Kilda Botanical Gardens is edited down to a very brisk ninety minutes, including interpolated pop songs and dance numbers.  There is no pretence whatsoever that any of it is ‘real’; the prevailing colour of Leah Fitzgerald-Quinn’s ridiculous costumes is shocking pink – with a switch to restful green when the action moves to the Forest of... Daylesford.  It all happens in the open air with any characters not on stage – which is a small rotunda – roaming the paths and avenues of the Rose Garden, appearing and exiting from unexpected places.  With a seven o’clock start, It’s just getting dark as the comedy reaches its joyous conclusion, the whole cast on stage, singing together, all conflicts and misunderstandings resolved. 

And yet, as with previous Melbourne Shakespeare Company productions, amidst the clowning, the pop songs and anachronisms, wisecracks to the audience, and the deliberate mugging and over-acting, this iteration manages to include much of Shakespeare’s insights, character development and genuine emotion.  Director Annabelle Tudor finds a superb balance between farce and feeling – as well as using the Rose Garden setting to the full and keeping up a cracking pace.  Three of the cast – well, four if you include a triangle – play musical instruments and they too are seamlessly integrated into the action.

After some complicated exposition (but rarely is exposition as clear and entertaining as it is here) about bitter rivalries, imperious threats and vengeful people, our heroine Rosalind (Kirby Lunn) is exiled.  She and her bestie cousin Celia (Luisa Scrofani) resolve to run away to the Forest of... Daylesford, together with Touchstone (Jamie Garner) their much put-upon servant.  They know nothing of forests, having been brought up in palace luxury, and one of the very funny aspects of things is the way Rosalind and Celia begin as a couple of naïve, giggling, shrieking teenagers, off on an adventure, and grow up over the course of the play.  Scrofani – a delightful performance - plays the perfect foil to her more heedless friend.  Indeed, one of the pleasures – and marvels – is watching Kirby Lunn ring the changes in her Rosalind as she goes from privileged airhead to careful, manipulative, smart and even wise bossy mentor to others in matters of the heart.  (Rosalind is just about my favourite character in all Shakespeare, and Lunn does her proud.)  Of course, Rosalind is already smitten by Orlando (Harley Dasey) whom she has seen in a wrestling match.  Dasey plays Orlando – also an exile in the forest – as a rather wet, hopelessly romantic, singing would-be poet who verges on irritating, who completely takes for granted his faithful but exhausted servant Adam (an hilarious performance by Yuan Lu).

As You Like It is, amongst other things, a fairy tale, and a story of variations of love – impulsive, slow-burn, misplaced, wise and foolish.  When Rosalind disguises herself as a young man, ‘Ganymede’, shepherdess Phoebe (Imogen Rabbitte) promptly falls in love with her/him and has to be persuaded to turn her attention to gormless shepherd Silvius (Gareth Isaac).  Rabbitte is wonderful as an over-the-top, fawning, touchy-feely, compulsively smiling idiot girl whose embraces Rosalind has to practically peel off.  Meanwhile, Orlando shows up, searching for Rosalind, so Rosalind/Ganymede tests him and his wooing skills by making Orlando pretend that Ganymede is this ‘Rosalind’ whom Orlando supposedly adores, pinning dreadful love poems on every second tree.  Meanwhile, as a small subplot, the very urban, whingeing Touchstone will give it all away for another shepherdess Audrey (Emma Austin) – two more performances of inspired comedic acting - who has to test this Touchstone character: are they really for real, and what’s in it for Audrey.

Shakespeare’s forest is, as well as a place for romance, also a site of freedom, a place where the hierarchical strictures, threats and aggressions are absent.  The contrast is vividly illustrated by the striking Emma Woods – both the mean and frightening Dame Frederick at the palace, and the generous, carefree Dame Senior in the forest.  A surprising piece of casting is the always wonderful Sonya Suares as sourpuss Jacques – but Suares plays the role as a cool, sun-glassed hipster, and makes the ‘Seven Ages’ speech completely her own.

But the whole cast is excellent and the way they play off each other is so enjoyable to watch. Yes, there’s still some poetry in the dialogue, but don’t let that deter you or the kids. The energy and invention of this As You Like It makes for a mirthful entertainment at dusk in a lovely setting.

Michael Brindley          

Photographer: Nick Robertson.