AS YOU LIKE IT (Globe Theatre)*****

 

By Louise

Link: https://globeplayer.tv/videos/as-you-like-it £5.99 to rent, £11.99 to own or send as a gift. It is very complicated sending it as a gift but the Globe people are very helpful

Available until: I think you can keep it for a limited time if you rent it and it’s yours forever if you buy it.

I think the Globe is a really beautiful theatre. Every time I see a production, I’m surprised by how beautiful it is. This production has lots of shots of the entire stage (Kriss Russman directed the filming, though he didn’t direct the actual production) so you get the full effect of what a special theatre it is and how much work must have gone into it. It is sad to think the Globe (and almost every other theatre) has no audience at the moment.

The director of the production is Thea Sharrock. She has really encouraged her cast to make the most of the humour in the play, but it never goes over the top. The actors play with the words and find new meanings and the production moves so easily from one scene to the other, with no break in the action. Like a lot of Globe productions, it has moments when the actors go into the audience and this works really well. I liked the way Jaques (I think it was him) was up in one of the circles with the audience, leaning over the rail to deliver his lines.

Ms Sharrock also gave the actors a lot of freedom to skip or throw themselves onto the stage if they wanted to and it worked really well because they always did it like they really meant it. I wish we could have seen Audrey’s herd of goats, but I’ve heard that goats can be quite naughty onstage so not hiring a herd of goats might have been another very sensible decision. I also really liked Fin Walker’s choreography and although I don’t usually enjoy fighting, Kevin McCurdy made the fight scenes really funny. Poor Charles (Sean Kearns), though.

I really liked all the cast. Jack Laskey is so sweet and so funny as Orlando. Shakespeare’s characters are very good at talking so they don’t often seem lost for words but Jack manages it when he sees Rosalind. I think he was very lucky to win the fight against Charles as that was not a fair fight at all. Mr Laskey very likeable, but I think (if I can use a phrase some people see as sexist) Rosalind will wear the trousers (as she does for most of the play). Naomi Frederick’s Rosalind is independent, intelligent and brave and I think she’ll look after Orlando. I like the way she alters her voice and movement just slightly when she’s being Ganymede.

Laura Rogers is quite a bossy Celia, which worked really well and she was funny. Jamie Parker’s Oliver was a lot nicer than I was expecting and if he gets any more bad ideas, I think Celia will talk him out of it. Oliver and Orlando’s brother didn’t appear, but his lines were said by Gregory Gudgeon’s authoritative Le Beau. It was sad in a way not to see the other brother, but it’s nice to bring Le Beau back at the end when he was so important in Act 1.

The Dukes were really good too. Brendan Hughes is quite a scary and threatening Duke Frederick and I don’t blame anyone for wanting to run away from him. Philip Bird’s Duke Senior didn’t seem to be enjoying his exile very much, but he still seemed like a duke. He had dignity. I think Tim McMullan’s Jaques might have been challenging company for anyone if they were with him for a long time, but I thought he was great. He’s really droll. I also thought Michael Benz was lovely and full of character as Silvius, even if Jade Williams’ amusing Phebe did prefer Ganymede, but I’m sure she would agree now that Silvius is more her type.

But I think my favourite character in this production might be Touchstone. Dominic Rowan seems to have so much fun in the role and he gives his audience a lot of fun too. He finds all the humour in the play and brings it out in a really natural way, but he seems like a really nice character at the same time and I love the way he skips around the stage and shouts. He’s so uninhibited in a completely harmless way and it’s really lovely. I think Audrey (Sophie Duval) is very lucky, though I’m not sure she knows it yet. She seems a bit dubious about Touchstone, but I can understand that. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell if exuberant people are being genuine, but I think Touchstone is.

There is also some really lovely music by Stephen Warbeck, sung by two very different but equally good singers – Peter Gale as Amiens and Ewart James Walters as Hymen. The Globe always casts people in singing roles who really sing very well and they teach the whole cast to dance too so I always really look forward to the music, as well as the brilliant plays.

These productions aren’t free to watch, but if you think how much they’d be if they were on DVD, the prices are really good. There are lots of different plays available on Globe Player, most of them Shakespeare but not all of them. You can even watch Shakespeare in different languages.