‘As You Like It’ The Consensus: A Pastoral Paradise

The Soundtrack: Contributions from Laura Marling

Rachel Eliza Guthrie

I joked with friends, that the RSC’s most recent production of As You Like It was the closest I’ve seen a Shakespeare to a musical. Then my ignorance was realised. Four songs were originally scripted in by the playwright himself and not simply to lighten the mood from tragedy to comedy, but to mimic (and parody) the pastoral format where nymphs and shepherdesses serenade their company. As the most musical of all his plays, there is potential to develop a musical theme in this play more than any other, and this is what director Maria Aberg realised when she asked celebrated young Brit Laura Marling (twice nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and winner of the Best Female Solo Artist at the 2011 Brit Awards) to write the music.

The music was developed as a theme of its own, which then determined and enhanced the aesthetic of the play as a whole. But its relative independence didn’t mean it was untrue to Shakespeare’s plot. It was in fact delightfully (excuse the not very obvious pun) au naturale. Two noble ladies – Rosalind and Celia – are banished from their comfortable, urban dwellings, and are forced to set up a new life in the country – the Forest of Arden – with cows, and their muck, and some slightly more loveable company. This cued Glastonbury-inspired set and costume to accompany Marling’s wistful woes, performed acoustically by the cast.

Running through the summer season, the jokes about glamping, and weddings framed by floral bunting couldn’t have seemed more contemporary or well-timed. Marling and her musical playmates supplemented Shakespeare’s musical comedy, aiding a smart re-invention of this timeless play and reinstalling a Golden Age at Stratford-upon-Avon’s answer to The Globe.

Royal Shakespeare Company production of As You Like It, photo: Keith Pattison

The Direction: A Woman’s Touch 

Rachel Bradley

As You Like It doesn’t have the same notoriety as Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Hamlet or Othello. Without barking up the feminism tree, perhaps this is down to the play’s protagonist being a woman. In 1599, when the play was first performed, Rosalind would have been played by a fella with facial hair, not the slender framed, fresh faced Pippa Nixon of the RSC’s latest production. Now that women can freely play roles written for – wait for it – women (shock horror!), we can start to appreciate As You Like It for what it is; one of the Bard’s wittiest, most whimsical works.

[pullquote style=”right” quote=”dark”] It’s a folky, festival-like atmosphere and it works, perfectly. [/pullquote]
The location is unique, and director Maria Aberg has taken the pastoral setting and flown with it. The characters wear dreads, drink beer and dance to music by Laura Marling. The acting is also spot on; Pippa Nixon and Alex Waldmann are more than convincing as young lovers Rosalind and Orlando, so convincing in fact that Orlando steals more hearts than only Rosalind’s. The RSC’s production of As You Like It, is funny, feel-good and surprisingly more accessible than many of Shakespeare’s other plays. It could only be a woman’s touch.

The Set: A Space for Audience Interaction 

Sian Elvin

Pippa Nixon (Rosalind), photo: Keith Pattison

Aside from Pippa Nixon’s incredible portrayal of Rosalind, what stood out to me during this performance of As You Like It was the fantastic use of space by the cast. Not only did they enter and exit through the doors in the audience as well as from the main stage, but they brought with them a host of fire, guns, and set decoration, from bunting and fairy lights, to camping chairs and a mini fridge.

As it was my first visit to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, I was really impressed by the design of the theatre itself (a thrust stage), which allowed for maximum interaction between the audience and cast, even sometimes very directly. The stunning set and flawless acting along with this really makes the audience part of the play – we could practically smell the rain in the final scene – and leaves one with a firm sense of good-feeling, long after the performance has finished.

Oliver Ryan (Jacques), photo: Keith Pattison

The Genre: Comedy interspersed with Melancholy 

Daniel Cope

Maria Aberg’s As You Like It is an unequivocal delight. Aberg is conscious of the indefinability of the genre of Shakespeare’s work by highlighting the laugh-out-loud tropes with the truly threatening instances of near tragedy. The moments of comedy are appropriately overt and well-played by the cast who embody Shakespeare’s satirical spirit with exceptional ability. They are occasionally held longer than necessary, but predominantly hit the right notes of satire and worked best when used sparingly, like when Nicolas Tennant’s Touchstone breaks the fourth wall and chats with individual audience members.

Nonetheless, the production really hits its stride during the more sombre and intimate moments. The bond between Orlando (Alex Waldmann) and his elderly servant, Adam (David Fielder) is conveyed with a noble respect and poignancy that stands out well amongst the frivolity.

[pullquote style=”left” quote=”dark”] There were two stars of this show. [/pullquote]
First, Laura Marling and her beautiful soundtrack, which blends seamlessly with the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) pastoral vision. Secondly, Pippa Nixon, whose portrayal Rosalind is incredible. Her vivacity is sustained throughout the performance and Nixon handles the lengthy verse with true passion. A splendid Shakespearian spectacle!

Joanna Horton (Celia), photo: Keith Pattison

The Costume: Two Fashions 

Rebekah Ellerby

It’s a traditional ploy to begin the dark, sombre and oppressive setting of the court with black and white costumes, then to progress into colourful garbs in the saturnalian, pastoral space of the Forest of Arden. But this convention was particularly well employed in Aberg’s vivacious production of As You Like It. With smart suits, velvet black dresses and sharp heels, the courtiers, enhanced in stark contrast with open white lights, the court felt austere and threatening. The stakes were raised in such a setting, as Pippa Nixon made Rosalind’s courteous but bold affront to plead with her uncle, a particularly imposing figure as played by the skin-headed and towering John Stahl.

Monochrome beginnings made way for festival endings, as Rosalind, Celia and Touchstone go “to liberty and not to banishment”. It was lovely and unusual that the characters changed outfits while in Arden, emphasising the length of time spent there and therefore its aura of timelessness as the scenes pass with festivity and only tentative moments of danger. And even these were made, quite forcefully, comedic by this production. Here, Celia’s hunger was invented by Rosalind as an excuse to find food, rather than there being a real possibility of starvation, and though Adam did collapse in the arms of Orlando, he returned at the end happily in a knitted jumper and red bow tie to dance along with the company, where in the script he remains absent; lost.

With fair isle knits, neon brights and bohemian florals, the costumes altogether encompassed the carnivalesque atmosphere this production of the play unashamedly emphasises as it progresses towards its magically comedic and splendidly convenient conclusion.

As You Like It : Review. See Julia Dorrington’s full review of the production here.