London’s West End has a new theatre, the beautiful and intimate Soho Place Theatre in Charing Cross Road, just a minute’s walk from Tottenham Court Road tube station. The theatre seats 600 and its shape is flexible. On this occasion the production is in-the-round.
AS YOU LIKE IT is billed as written by William Shakespeare and adapted by Josie Rourke. The adaptation involves casting non-binary and transgender actors and changing the sex of many of the roles.
Rosalind (Leah Harvey), banished from the court, disguises herself as a male, adopts the name of Ganymede and takes refuge in the Forest of Arden where she bumps into a nice chap called Orlando, who thinks she is a man.
The forest is created by leaves falling on stage and then more and more and even more leaves falling. It’s magical.
In Greek mythology, Ganymede was an extremely beautiful boy who was abducted by Zeus and became his cupbearer and lover. It would be interesting to know whether the very tall boy actor who created Rosalind in 1600 was gay. At the end of the play Leah Harvey remains in male costume and does not revert to female clothes.
Alfred Enoch is an engaging Orlando, especially when he is marring trees with copies of his awful love verses and singing out of key to the trees. There is also a moving moment, the most moving in the play, when he is starving and the exiles welcome him with open arms and offer him hospitality.
A major innovation is that Celia, Rosalind’s best girlfriend, is deaf and uses sign language throughout. Shakespeare’s dialogue appears as sub-titles on screens round the auditorium Rose Ayling-Ellis is a lively Celia, dominating the stage and often side-lining Rosalind.
In the opening scenes at court everybody is dressed in Elizabethan costume. In the Forest of Arden everybody is in modern dress; except for Touchstone (Tom Mison) who remains a Shakespearian clown in motley throughout.
Melancholy Jaques, a philosophical idler, who can suck melancholy out of a song as a weasel sucks eggs, is now a melancholy lady and acted by Martha Plimpton. Adam, the old servant (allegedly once played by Shakespeare) is played by June Watson who transforms into Corin, the old shepherd, who spars with Touchstone, who has a panto moment when he tries to orchestrate the bleating sheep.
Music plays a key role in Josie Rourke’s jolly production. On stage all the time is a baby grand piano at which composer and pianist Michael Bruce sits and accompanies the action, as pianists did in cinemas in the silent film era. Bruce has a constant rapport with the actors and makes witty musical comments, without ever overwhelming them.
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