Robert Tanitch reviews As You Like It at Shakespeare’s Globe, London
A young girl dresses up as a boy and calls herself Ganymede. A young man falls in love with him. Imagine his disappointment when he finds out he’s a girl.
But there is no sexual ambiguity in this gender reversal; there is not even a whiff of homoeroticism in Blanche McIntyre’s superficial and uninteresting production.
The action begins at court in the city and then moves to the countryside; but since there is not a single tree, not even a branch, not even a twig, not even a leaf on stage, how would you know you were in the Forest of Arden?
Rosalind is wise, witty and adorable and she’s in love. Michelle Terry’s broad “saucy lackey” performance (when she is disguised as a boy) may do for uncritical audiences but it will not do for anybody who knows the play.
And if you haven’t got the right Rosalind then Shakespeare’s charm and magic don’t begin to work. The greatest Rosalind in living memory remains Vanessa Redgrave.
Thank goodness for James Garnon, who is cast as melancholy Jaques, a professional cynic, who finds it amusing that the world should be likened to a stage. Garnon, a highly experienced Globe actor, knows exactly how to play the Globe audience.
Thank goodness, too, for Daniel Crossley who is cast as the court jester, Touchstone. Crossley, swift and sententious, manages to make his comic turn when he describes the seven ways to lie (plus its already built-in encore) genuinely funny.
The most enjoyable moment of all is the singing of “It Was Lover and His Lass” by an amusing quartet who turn it into a music hall number and give it the full, silly, show-stopping “hey ding a ding a ding”.
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