Sometimes you see a show that begs the question, “Why can’t all Shakespeare be like this?”
Shakespeare Theatre Company’s staging of “As You Like It”—brilliantly conceived and performed by members of Vancouver’s Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival—is one such unforgettable production. Blending songs by The Beatles with William Shakespeare’s comedy updated to 1967, the hilarity of the play comes across (the universe) as vivid and inspired.
It’s not just songs that invigorate the production. As directed by Daryl Cloran, who also adapted the play, talented actors deliver Shakespearean lines with flair in a way that erases the 400-year language gap. Natural timing, inflections, gestures, sighs and other nonverbal sounds—with an occasional tongue-in-cheek modern idiom added here and there—convey Shakespeare’s gender-bending rom-com in a fresh and exciting way.
Nearly two dozen Beatles songs, with guitars and drums played live on stage (music directed by Ben Elliott), not only enrich our experience of characters' emotions but work surprisingly well with the story lyrically. A preshow wrestling match—which blows up the play’s opening brawl—features the song “Money (That’s What I Want),” establishing a lively and edgy tone that continues throughout.
Early Beatles tunes—including “She Loves You,” “Love Me Do,” Eight Days a Week,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Help!”—fit well the love-at-first sight encounter between Rosalind (Chelsea Rose), daughter of an exiled dame, and Orlando (Jeff Irving), neglected second son of the late Sir Rowland de Boys.
As events move from the money-driven world of professional wrestling to the idyllic Forest of Arden—where Rosalind’s mother Dame Senior (Jennifer Lines) lives with members of her former court, including the hilariously melancholy beatnik Jaques (Andrew Cownden)—more out-of-the-box Beatles songs like “I Am the Walrus,” “The Fool on the Hill” and “Helter Skelter” capture the nonconformity of their free-spirited hippie lifestyle and the pain of exile (especially a heart-tugging rendition of “Let It Be”).
Bright and colorful scenic design (Pam Johnson) and period costuming (Carmen Alatorre) vividly capture Arden’s flower-power exuberance. Vibrantly colored lighting frames the stage as giant pastel flower stickers adorn the stage floor (and, playfully, the theatre lobby). Band members change from referee uniforms in the first act to bell bottoms, colorful shirts and vests in Arden, their festively arrayed hippie van occasionally rocking behind them.
Fortunately, the actors are as talented in singing as in acting, and embrace both dance and physical comedy with gusto (choreography and fight direction by Jonathan Hawley Purvis; preshow content and comedic contributions by Kayvon Khoshkam, who also plays Touchstone the court jester, in pinstripe suit and platform shoes, with perfect timing).
Minor country-folk characters who inhabit Arden offer ribald and slapstick humor that play with conceits of love. Silvius (Elliott) loves Phoebe (Alexandra Lainfiesta), but she loves Rosalind, who is disguised as a man in Arden. In one extended (though perhaps a touch too melodramatic) scene, Silvius literally takes Phoebe’s punches like a ragdoll while she sings of her love for another, knocking him sideways on nearly every beat with her swaying limbs.
Such energy and enthusiasm infuse the production and prove infectious, easily sustaining the audience’s attention and sympathies through a nearly two-and-a-half hour run time and a more episodic second-act structure, which culminates in no less than four marriages.
Though each cast member deserves a shout-out, leads Rose as Rosalind and Irving as Orlando are exceptional, anchoring the production with their formidable talent, chemistry and likability. Naomi Ngebulna also brings believable warmth as Rosalind’s loyal cousin Celia.
Cownden as Jaques and Khoshkam as Touchstone confidently amuse in their differently droll roles. In terms of physical comedy, Emma Slipp as super-strong shepherdess Audrey and Marcus Walker-Ng as Charles the Wrestler also delight.
As Jaques opines, “All the world’s a stage,” but this particular stage is alive with an electrically entertaining production not to be missed. Acting, music and singing, choreography and staging groovily synergize to drive home the message of the play (and a certain song, centuries later) that all you need is love, love is all you need.
“As You Like It” continues at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Harman Hall, 610 F Street NW
Washington, D.C., through Jan. 14. For tickets and information, call the box office at (202) 547-1122 or visit Shakespearetheatre.org. Run time is 2 hours and 40 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission. A preshow experience begins 20 minutes before each performance.
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