As You Like It

Play (1600)
by William Shakespeare

With Jared Michael Brown (Silvius, Le Beau, 2nd Lord), Joel Colodner (Duke Frederick, Duke Senior), Steven DeMarco (Charles the Wrestler, Aubrey, 1st Lord), Katie Elinoff (Phebe, Amiens, Courtier), Brooke Hardman (Rosalind), Jesse Hinson (Orlando), Jennie Israel (Jacques, Courtier), Johnnie McQuarley (Oliver, Martext), Paula Plum (Touchstone), Mara Sidmore (Celia), Richard Snee (Adam, Corin, Dennis, Hymen)

The plot is far too complicated to summarize easily, but suffice it to say that Rosalind and her cousin Celia go off to the forest where Rosalind’s father has been hiding out from his unscrupulous brother. Orlando, who has fallen in love with Rosalind, is roaming the forest writing odes to her. In disguise as Ganymede, a young man, Rosalind encounters Orlando and plays him to the hilt, insisting that he pretend that she as Ganymede is actually Rosalind and that he should practice his lovemaking on him/her. The ruse is sublime, and Celia plays along delightfully. There are far more complications and liaisons, but surely, in the end, the disguises come off and love and justice win out.

As in multiple Shakespearean comedies, the role of disguise plays significantly. In this play, however, that Rosalind as Ganymede is a disguised character inviting her unwitting lover, Orlando, to treat her as she really would be without a disguise is a great twist, unique even in Shakespeare. The implications of the idea that the playfully hidden reveals more than the sheerly exposed reverberate throughout the Bard’s work, but here it has particularly pointed significance.

What a great production this is. Robert Walsh has energized his troupe in such a way that all absolutely shine. There are no dull notes in the score and each of these delightful actors, in sometimes taking on several roles, nails it.

Brooke Hardman is a really wonderful Rosalind. As Ganymede, she plays the ends against the middle, beautifully melding the boyishness of Ganymede and the coyishness of Rosalind. She is a playful, vulnerable lead and creates a richly dimensional portrayal, interleaving all the layers of the roles adeptly, juggling that of a young woman dressed as a man testing her lover by acting like a woman.

Jesse Hinson is a very vivid Orlando. He is gallant but also boyish, his romanticism veering wildly throughout the forest of his uncharted emotions.

Mara Sidmore is a delightful sidekick. As Celia, she gets to romp, but also to ride: there are several scenes in which she careens around the stage on an old-fashioned bicycle, and her playful errancy adds great spice to the mix.

Paula Plum is an incredibly active and evocative Touchstone. In her speech about all the ways to engage in verbal marital combat, she is just out of this world, adding more enunciation and gesticulation than one could possibly imagine. She is an incredibly inventive and irrepressible actor.

As Jacques, Jennie Israel gives a mature, but entirely sensuous rendition, full-throated and compelling.

Jared Michael Brown, as Silvius and Le Beau, is charming, both a bit coy and foppish on the one hand, and earnest and passionately diligent on the other.

Steven DeMarco as Charles the wrestler and as Aubrey, the fool’s consort, shows his varied talents, both as brute and as delightful doofus.

Katie Elinoff plays multiple roles, but sings so beautifully throughout it is truly intoxicating.

Overall, director Walsh has really done an amazing job in this fabulous production. Shakespeare comes alive in word and action. There is no sweating to decipher the dialogue which comes off the stage like gently sweetened whipped cream.

There was one scene when four actors were talking over one another with which I had some difficulty. I’m not sure what the significance and intent of that was, but the technique obscured the language in contrast with the rest of the production which did the opposite so successfully. Clearly an experimental moment which did not quite come off, it was one very small irritation in an evening of otherwise total delights.

Find your way to the Arden Forest in Springstep, Medford Square, and enter its magic for a few hours if you possibly can.

– BADMan