As You Like It: RSC: Stratford
Jun. 5th, 2009 10:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloThe title says it all: As You Like It is a crowd pleaser. It's a frolic, a holiday entertainment- a bit like a revue, a bit like a pantomime- with sudden glimpses among all the yuks of something old and deep and stirring.
But it's also got more dead wood in it than any other Shakespeare play I can think of. For "dead wood" read "Touchstone". This production gets round the problem by reinforcing the once topical and now incomprehensible gags with physical comedy. Richard Katz- who has to perform the miracle- is pretty damn good.
But then everyone is pretty damn good. This is what you expect- but don't always get- from the RSC: acting in depth. Forbes Masson is a commanding- even show-stopping- Jacques, Jonjo O'Neill a winning Orlando, Katy Stephens a rumbustious Rosalind (pity I didn't fancy her more) and Mariah Gale a delightful Celia. The production, by Michael Boyd, the RSC's artistic supremo- and a safe pair of hands- is intelligent and light on its feet- and acknowledges and engages the audience more than I've ever seen happen at the RSC. Certain characters- Jacques and Touchstone especially- address us directly- and get us shouting back. Now that's the spirit!
Phew! After A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Winter's Tale and Julius Caesar I was beginning to think of attendance at Stratford as a painful cultural duty.
We came out of the theatre to find Orlando's "poems" taped to trees and walls and railings all the way down the street.
But it's also got more dead wood in it than any other Shakespeare play I can think of. For "dead wood" read "Touchstone". This production gets round the problem by reinforcing the once topical and now incomprehensible gags with physical comedy. Richard Katz- who has to perform the miracle- is pretty damn good.
But then everyone is pretty damn good. This is what you expect- but don't always get- from the RSC: acting in depth. Forbes Masson is a commanding- even show-stopping- Jacques, Jonjo O'Neill a winning Orlando, Katy Stephens a rumbustious Rosalind (pity I didn't fancy her more) and Mariah Gale a delightful Celia. The production, by Michael Boyd, the RSC's artistic supremo- and a safe pair of hands- is intelligent and light on its feet- and acknowledges and engages the audience more than I've ever seen happen at the RSC. Certain characters- Jacques and Touchstone especially- address us directly- and get us shouting back. Now that's the spirit!
Phew! After A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Winter's Tale and Julius Caesar I was beginning to think of attendance at Stratford as a painful cultural duty.
We came out of the theatre to find Orlando's "poems" taped to trees and walls and railings all the way down the street.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-05 04:24 pm (UTC)That's awesome.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-05 06:36 pm (UTC)