Theater Review
What would a Shakespearean comedy be without a forest where characters could run and hide or lose themselves between here and there? There would be no transformative journey, no place for unlikely characters and lovers to unite. Shakespeare’s 16th-century classic ‘As You Like It’ is similar in structure to his other festive comedies”Much Ado about Nothing’ and ‘Twelfth Night”but its pastoral setting, the Forest of Arden, is more disorienting. The characters who come together in the forest are jilted out of their ordinary lives, forced to reevaluate their situations and explore a new existence. Director Sir Peter Hall captures the play’s essential spirit of discovery and renewal in memorable back-to-back scenes performed by a sensational cast, now playing at the Ahmanson Theatre through March 27. The production originated in England’s Theatre Royal Bath and has been touring since 2003. The Forest of Arden is not the mythical ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ idyll except in its charming aura of freedom and equality. It’s a place where men must survive as brothers and embrace a communal way of living. It’s here that a virtuous Duke and his loyal followers retreat when the Duke’s usurping younger brother, Frederick, banishes him. James Laurenson plays both Dukes, which is initially confusing if you don’t follow the costume/role change. The forest challenges the exiled courtiers’ mental and physical strength, and they frequently refer to it as ‘a desert place’ to emphasize its harsh natural conditions. Yet we are reminded of the more unbearable society life they left behind through the juxtaposition of scenes of the exiles listening to sweet-sounding, live folk music/caroling in the forest with Duke Frederick giving orders in his rigid, unfeeling court. The projected forest, designed by John Gunter, transforms more naturally than magically from a bone-stark winterscape to a lacy lime- and moss-green pastoral setting during the course of the play, a metaphor for the characters’ inner transformation and rebirth. The courtiers and shepherds who meet in the forest are played by a British cast that seems equally moved by the play’s emotional soul-searching. Running the show is Rebecca Hall, the director’s daughter, in the role of Rosalind. At times playfully girlish (or tomboyish), Hall maintains an underlying sense of seriousness concerning matters of love and romance. Rosalind is the daughter of the banished Duke, and flees to the forest in search of him when she can no longer stand her evil uncle’s temper. But before leaving, she meets the boyish-looking but strong Orlando, who wins a wrestling match that his own evil brother Oliver has organized to destroy him. Rosalind sympathizes with his situation and falls in love with the tongue-tied Orlando, played by Dan Stevens, who evokes all the moral strength, passion and lovesick awkwardness of this character. When Rosalind learns that he is the youngest son of Sir Rowland de Boys, whom her father loved dearly, she acknowledges in typical Shakespearean fashion that it makes sense that she should then love Orlando. They meet again in the forest, but this time Rosalind and her devoted cousin Celia are dressed as a shepherd boy called Ganymede and his sister Aliena, so that they can travel safely. When Rosalind realizes that Orlando has been carving her name on trees posted with his love poems about her, she offers to give him good counsel to cure him of his love. Thus begins the comical mock courtship in which Orlando woos Ganymede as though ‘he’ were Rosalind. In the role of Celia, Rebecca Callard gives a strong performance alongside the leading lady, with her sarcastic, eye-rolling responses to Rosalind’s playful scheming. Callard also evokes Celia’s sense of liberation in the forest through her dance-like movements and ability to appear comfortably at home against the trunk of a tree. The development of the love affair between Rosalind and Orlando is a rather simple story since we see them get to know each other, scene by scene, but there are multiple subplots that make the play difficult to follow at times. One that we do follow is the shaky relationship between Silvius and Phoebe, the doting shepherd and quirky shepherdess whom Rosalind tries to unite despite Phoebe’s kicking and screaming. ‘Sell when you can!’ she tells the not-so-lovely Phoebe. ‘You are not for all markets.’ But when Phoebe falls for Ganymede instead, Rosalind knows she must set everything straight. Charlotte Parry plays a hysterical Phoebe, who can evade a man’s grasp, mock him, throw a girlish tantrum and fall sheepishly in love with another. Hall delivers her many speeches on love and romance with deep sincerity and passion, although her voice trembles at times in a way that makes it difficult to understand some of her words. The play as a whole feels more like a journey of the soul with all of the emotional ups and downs of real life than a comedy through and through, but Rosalind’s comedic matchmaking at the end leaves us on a high note. Of course, all the loose ends, including the Phoebe and Silvius debacle, are quickly tied in perfect bows in the last 10 minutes of the three-hour performance. The Ahmanson Theatre is located at 135 N. Grand Ave. in Downtown Los Angeles. Contact: (213) 628-2772.
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