I have now witnessed three productions in a row of William
Shakespeare's "As You Like It" set in the 1960s. Something of a trend may be
building here, although I thought Retro had moved on to the 70s. The latest production is
from the company Shakespeare On the Green -- sort of the resident company for Griffith
Park's Old Zoo Site -- back for their second summer at the site.
Arguably the sweetest of Shakespeare's comedies, "As You Like It" deals with two
sets of brothers, each having one brother usurp the other, and a whole bunch of people
falling madly in love at first sight. The plot of "As You Like It" requires some
explaining and a lot of suspension of disbelief, it goes roughly as follows (don't worry
if you lose the thread, it's not that important):
Young Orlando (Kirk Enochs) has been denied his inheritance by his older brother, Oliver
(James James). Meanwhile, Duke Frederick (Justin Dunne) has tossed out his older brother,
Duke [who does not seem to have any other name, unless, while still in office he was
referred to as Duke Duke - not to be confused with James James, above] (Stephan Early) who
has moved into the Forest of Arden with his own band of (with one exception) merry men.
That exception is Jaques (Michael Kroeker) who most certainly is not merry. Are you with
me so far?
Back at the Court, Duke Duke's daughter, Rosalind (Beverly Sotelo) and Duke Frederick's
daughter, Celia (Tasha Wenger), who are bosom buddies, meet Orlando, who has come to the
Court to wrestle the local champion. Orlando and Rosalind see each other and, bang, love
at first sight. Orlando wups the champ, ticks off Duke Frederick by being the son of one
of Duke Duke's friends, and flees into the forest with his old geezer of a family servant,
Adam (Raleigh Scovel).
Duke Frederick now boots Rosalind out of the Court and she too heads for the forest with
Celia, who sticks by her best friend and cousin even though her dad has promised her the
dukedom when he moves on. Presumably for amusement, they bring along the court jester,
Touchstone (Charles C. Nickerson) and, to escape the wrath of Duke Frederick, they, but
not Touchstone, change their identities. Rosalind puts her hair up in a bandana and
announces she is a guy named Ganymede and Celia changes her dress and announces she is
Ganymede's sister, Aliena. These disguises are so impenetrable that neither Orlando nor
Duke Duke recognize the two girls.
While in the forest, Rosalind and Celia meet a young couple, Silvius (Zach Hanks), a
shepherd who is madly in love with Phebe (Kiersten Van Horne), a shepherdess. Phebe takes
one look at Rosalind/Ganymede and, bang!, falls in love with her/him. In the meantime,
Touchstone, meets Audrey (Suzan Spann) and, bang!, falls in love (or at least lust) with
her. While all this is going on, Orlando is running about the forest tacking bad love
poetry on every tree in honor of Rosalind.
Rosalind, as Ganymede, convinces Orlando to let he/her teach him how to woo Rosalind.
Then Oliver, Orlando's brother shows up and the two brothers reconcile.
Oliver and Celia meet and, (you guessed it) bang!, they fall in love at first sight.
Rosalind contrives to trick Phebe into marrying Silvius and, ultimately, all the couples
get married. Orlando and Oliver's other brother shows up with the happy news that Duke
Frederick, while invading the forest, met a hermit and, bang!, fell in love with the idea
of also becoming a hermit and has restored the dukedom to his older brother. Let's face
it. Plot is not one of Shakespeare's strong points. But what of this production?
The large cast is uneven but mostly more than adequate for the job. One particular bright
spot, no fake British speech affectations -- the bane of far too many American productions
-- and the cast seemed comfortable with the language. Congratulations to director Rajan
Dosaj for pulling off both of these miracles. I did, in fact, enjoy this production,
especially for its energy and pace.
Beverly Sotelo's Rosalind has a nice spunky quality to it, but I was diappointed when she
assumed her disguise as the boy Ganymede. While a spunky Rosalind is cool, an un-butch
Ganymede is a bummer. I liked Tasha Wenger's Celia, a Celia with some backbone, except I
became increasing puzzled by some of the acting choices -- did she have to come on to
anyone in pants and what on earth was the reason for the constant nipping at a flask?
The constant tipping of the hat to "Hair" to set the period was fun once,
amusing twice, and by the end, a bit overdone. Ultimately, the 60s weren't evoked, they
were presented as a cardboard cut-out. A Pity. Louis Fantasia's wonderful production of
"As You Like It" about a year and a half ago at the Tracy Roberts Studio also
was set in the 1960s, but it stayed there in the Summer of Love and didn't wander -- the
actual songs from the play were sung and performed by a Bob Dylan look and sound alike;
Duke Frederick was Richard Nixon, played by an actor who looked and sounded like Nixon
(and didn't yell), who was surrounded by secret service men in suits and dark glasses; the
Forest of Arden became Haight Ashbury populated by hippies, etc. Now, that was the 60s.
This production is still worth seeing. The setting couldn't be better for the Forest of
Arden, a natural amphitheater with a little creek bed running through the middle, with
actors appearing out of the trees and scampering on boulders. This beautiful location is
perfect for blankets and picnics and for "As You Like It." Go see it, you
probably will like it.
William Shakespeare's "As You Like It", directed by Rajan Dosaj at the Old Zoo
Site (off of Griffith Park Drive) in Griffith Park. Saturdays and Sundays through August
29, 1999 at 4:00 PM.
As You Like It -
Rosalind & Stock Dramatic Types
Written by Kenneth
Wee, 1A01B, September 1995.
"Compared with Rosalind, all the other figures in As You Like It
are just stock dramatic types." How far do you agree with this criticism?
In this radiant blend of fantasy, romance, wit and humour, Rosalind stands out as the
most robust, multidimensional and lovable character, so much so that she tends to
overshadow the other characters in an audience's memory, making them seem, by comparison,
just "stock dramatic types" as the question asserts. Yet, As You Like It
is not a stock romance that just happens to have Shakespeare's greatest female role. The
other members of the cast provide a well-balanced supporting role, and are not just
stereotypes. Characters whom Shakespeare uses to illustrate his main theme of the
variations of love are all more than one-use cardboards, as they must be fully drawn to
relate to life. Those characters most easily accused of having a stock one-dimensionality
are those inessential to the theme but important to the plot and useful as convenient
foils, such as Duke Frederick and Oliver de Boys. The assertion of the question deserves
this quote: "You have said; but whether wisely or no, let the forest judge."
There is no doubt, either in the critical or play-going mind, that Rosalind is the
"grandest of female roles" (Hazlitt). She encompasses a multitude of character
brushstrokes, from the lovestruck maiden to the witty archtongue to the steel-backboned
princess to the fiery Wise One. To add to the demands of the character Shakespeare adds in
an exterior sex-change and further makes Ganymede pretend to be Rosalind to Orlando.
Though this kind of "boy acting a girl acting a boy acting a girl" kind of
transmogrifications were not uncommon upon the Elizabethan stage, the kind of mind and
acting portrayed by Rosalind would dwarf that of the others on stage, and make her stand
out for her deviousness and sense of fun.
Though the range of her acting sub-roles alone would make the other characters look
pale, the depth of each of her "many parts" outshines many. As a woman in love
she demonstrates a range of emotion and action that far exceeds that of either Celia,
Phoebe or Audrey. It is her romance with Orlando that is the focus of the play, and the
one held up as the ideal, and therefore gets most of Shakespeare's attention as a
playwright. Rosalind's gushing first meeting with Orlando, a stark contrast to her
masterly handling of Le Beau just before, shows a more vulnerable Rosalind. Rosalind's
playful fantasising about Orlando after the wrestling match and after verses start
appearing on trees shows a depth of infatuation not explored with the other characters,
except Phoebe, though Phoebe is shown up to have a more stock kind of silly infatuation
rather than Rosalind's more courtly lovesickness. Rosalind's momentary drops of her guise
as Ganymede playing Rosalind, such as when she faints at seeing the bloody handkerchief,
show that Rosalind is humanly less than perfect, and these involuntary glimpses of the
true lover forced out by sheer emotion place Rosalind on a higher level of love than the
more ordinary, stereotypical posturings of Phoebe and Audrey
As wit and philosopher Rosalind plays a dominant role, though here Celia, Touchstone
and Jaques are less flat in comparison to Rosalind. Celia and Rosalind both show
indomitable tongues when mocking Le Beau and confusing him utterly when asking him the
colour of his sport, and though Rosalind takes over the action when they reach Arden,
Celia shares the stage at Court with her in equal degree, acting as a sister when poking
fun at Rosalind's melancholy, new love and cheering her up after her banishment. Even in
Arden Celia has quite strong parts when dealing with Corin and the verses on the trees,
conforming to no stock character, and shows human weakness in being unable to proceed in
IIiv. Some would argue that all this points to a stock Court Woman, but then the same
applies to Rosalind. Celia ends up as being less vibrant than Rosalind in that she
demonstrates less range, but in her support role for Rosalind Celia does quite beautifully
as a companion Ideal Woman. Touchstone plays the archetypical Fool, full of mocking wit
and low humour, and within his forced stereotype manages to convey a sweep of character.
He is a contrast to Rosalind in all he does, his vulgarity versus her puns and his low,
deceitful courtship as opposed to her Courtly Romance. Touchstone's strength of character
is on a par with Celia's, both playing
support roles to Rosalind but having colour of their own.
Jaques would be a noteworthy character in the absence of Rosalind, and it is
interesting that Jaques is never in the same scene as Rosalind until Jaques confronts
Rosalind in IVi (and loses) and in the last scene where it is strictly necessary and
characters have already been fully established. His consistent note of melancholy is not
any stock character's, for in IV he declares that his type of melancholy is his own. He is
no true Melancholy either, for he craves the company of men, and needs them to applaud his
"wit". He speaks as much as Rosalind, and it is notable that Shakespeare gives
him many great lines, such as the famous "All the world's a stage" speech which
ranks with Hamlet's "To be or not to be" as the most acclaimed of Shakespeare's
speeches. If Jaques were meant to be some colourness senex to be maligned Shakespeare
would not have given him so much to say and defend, so Jaques must be one of those to whom
the happy Ardeners must say: "As you like it." Jaques is unique just as Rosalind
is unique, with such strange actions as weeping over the deer and wanting to purge the
world. It is only in comparison with Rosalind that he fails, and his extremities shown as
false and unrealistic in contrast with Rosalind's practical and love-filled perceptions of
the world.
The male lovers all suffer in comparison with the female lovers, and this theme through
all of Shakespeare's comedies is repeated here. Silvius and William are shown as stock
drudge lovers, though Shakespeare gives Silvius an extra side with his rather genteel
confusion at Rosalind's accusation that he wrote Phoebe's letter. Orlando is more of a
stock hero than a Hamlet, full of bravado, righteousness and love. He never deviates from
his course as true love and warrior, physically defeating wrestlers, evil brothers, lions
and picnickers, while writing love-poetry to stick on trees and mooning after his
Rosalind. As hero of the play he is dominated by the heroine, and she overpowers him
through her wit. One could nearly say that this kind of manipulated but good hero is a
stock Shakespearean comedy hero in his own right, but Orlando's range of emotion deserves
more than that, for no stock hero I know writes such bad poetry and pastes it all over the
forest. His natural gentility in spite of his lack of schooling, and his pride in being
his father's son, craete a kind of nobility that is not found in stock characters, as it
gives motivation and a reason to behave in the way that he does.
This is in direct contrast to most of the rest of the characters in the play, who are
decidedly more one-sided than legion in their personality. Duke Frederick and Oliver give
really lousy reasons for the way they behave, and are patently there to push the main
characters into Arden, and act as a rough contrast to the gentility of Arden. Their sudden
conversions at the end of the play are similarly lacking in comparison to the study of
Rosalind's behaviour. Adam is an archetypical good old servant who is really too good to
be true, and disappears after performing his dramatic rather than thematic functions. Duke
Senior and his lords are typical of the Arden they represent, unflappable in their
goodwill and happiness. Duke Senior demonstrates complexity, though, in his
acknowledgement that all is not well in Arden and when he says that: "This wide and
universal theatre / Presents more woeful pageants than the scene / Wherein we play
in". Charles and Sir Oliver Martext are sideshows, necessary for the plot, but they
contain interesting bits of character that are definitely not stock, as in Charles'
original concern for Orlando and Sir Martext's refusal to be made a fool of by Touchstone.
These make them more than stock, but they are still as cardboard when compared to
Rosalind.
As You Like It contains as many characters as there are in life, but Rosalind is
used as the vehicle for the Ideal. Her main supporting characters are full of life, and
though not as much as Rosalind, it is still life for all of it. The less important
characters have to be more one-sided to keep the plot uncluttered, but sometimes the
one-dimensionality jars, as with Oliver. Rosalind's vibrance would overshadow any other
character, for to produce an Othello opposite her would create a conflict that this
greatest of comedies does not need.
Instruction Versus Deception:
from Rosalynde to As You Like It
AITLC Guide to
William Shakespeare http://tlc.ai.org/shakasyo.htm
- Thomas Lodge's Rosalynde is an unwieldy pastoral, overladen with classical
allusions and Latin aphorisms for courtier and shepherd alike. The romance is thick,
heavy, and conventional. Yet when Shakespeare took it in hand, to rework the tangled web
of disguise and romance into As You Like It, he changed much of the emphasis,
by both altering and adding characters. Rosalynde is a celebration of love; As
You Like It, a philosophical discourse on love, for Rosalind does not so much woo
Orlando as educate him in the proper way to love.
- Shakespeare cuts to the chase, eliminating much of the prologue to Rosalynde.
We hear of old Sir Roland de Boys (Lodge's John of Bordeaux) only through Orlando's
opening speech, not the extended deathbed collection of aphorisms Lodge provides (though
this shade of Polonius perhaps influences old Adam's long-winded style). Likewise, the
extended ruminations are cut entirely or, for the forest scenes, condensed into tighter
dialogue. Lodge's grand tournament, with the jousting prowess of the anonymous Norman
(proto-Charles) happens offstage, and we see only a wrestling match. Lodge's usurper
favors Rosader after the tournament, but Shakespeare's Frederick spurns Orlando for his
parentage and Oliver plots more quickly against his brother, further excising the
plot-perambulations of the source and removing the months of tension and reconciliation
that plague Saladin and Rosader.
- But Shakespeare also takes care to lighten his villains, more in the spirit of a playful
comedy than Lodge's sometimes grim pastoral. His Charles is relatively innocent, deceived
by Oliver rather than entering willingly into his pay (as the Norman does with Saladin).
Oliver, in turn, is not such a relentless foe as Saladin: he has no cronies to assist in
binding up Orlando, he does not so mistreat his brother before us as happens in Lodge's
pastoral. Even the usurper Duke, Torismond/Frederick, does not exile his own daughter in
Shakespeare's play (only remonstrating her with "You are a fool"). And he is not
killed in battle at the end of the play, but rather converted to a holy life, in much the
same fate that Lodge's Saladin plans for himself in remorse ("[I shall] wend my way
to the Holy Land, to end my years in as many virtues, as I have spent my youth in wicked
vanities." (p.273)).
- In contrast, Shakespeare darkens his heroes: they are not all the blithe, pastoral folk
Lodge paints. Celia's single "Is it not a foul bird that defiles its own nest?"
(p. 245) early in Rosalynde becomes Celia's more extended harangue at the end
of IV.i. -- unlike in Lodge, Celia does not volunteer to marry Orlando and Rosalind, but
is rather shanghaied into the task, to her chagrin. Orlando is not nearly as polite in his
first appearance to the exiled Duke: "Forbear, and eat no more!" (II.vii.88) is
rather more abrupt and impolitic than Rosader's polished and chivalric challenge.
Shakespeare's people are more human, with virtues and flaws for all.
- Amidst this simplification of Lodge's mass of material, Shakespeare also changes many
emphases. Lodge's lovers do little but harangue each other about the legendary inconstancy
of the other sex: Rosalind performs her share of carping, but also attacks the
overwhelming over-romanticism of Orlando's love. Lodge's plentiful sonnets become objects
of ridicule in As You Like It, material for the doggerel imitations of
Touchstone's "Sweetest nut hath sourest rind, / Such a nut is Rosalind"
(III.ii.109-110). And Rosalind's lessons to Orlando are meant to make him respect that
"sour rind," not to put his love on a pedestal for worship. Touchstone and
Audrey present raw sexual love, lust instead of romance; Silvius' longings for Phebe show
the foolish extreme of Petrarchan love, a losing of the self rather than a finding of the
lover, and more worthy of mockery than respect. Rosalind's disguised love-play is not
merely a game with hapless Orlando, but an education: he must care enough to keep his
promises and appointments, and respect her enough to speak as well as kiss (IV.i.).
Orlando's wound is not merely the delay in the plot that Lodge makes it, but the occasion
for his proof that the lesson is learned: Oliver's arrival with the bloody napkin shows
Orlando's new-found sensibility.
- Lodge's Rosalynde's characters concern themselves greatly with whether
to love: Shakespeare's are more worried with the question of how to love.
Rosalind strives for the triumph of rational relationships over heady emotionalism, a
romance that will allow the woman to keep her intelligence and dignity intact, but still
achieve romantic bliss. No wonder she seems so modern, and pleases so many modern
audiences.
