Peter Viney's Blog

As You Like It
By William Shakespeare

Directed by Olar Elerian
Designed by Ana Inés Jabars-Pita
Music by Will Gregory

Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Stratford-Upon-Avon
Friday 28th July 2023, 19.15

CAST:

Celia Bannerman – Phoebe
Maureen Beattie- Celia
Michael Bertenshaw – Oliver
Oliver Cotton – Jacques
David Fielder- Silvius
James Hayes- Touchstone
Geraldine James- Rosalind
David Sibley- Corin
Malcolm Sinclair- Orlando
Robin Soans – Duke Senior / Frederick
Cleo Sylvestre- Audrey
Ewart James Walters- William / Charles The Wrestler
Hannah Bristow- Company Player
Tyreke Leslie – Company Player
Mogali Masuku- Company Player
Rose Wardlaw- Company Player

MUSICIANS
Andy Taylor- guitar
Andy Davis – guitar
Nick Lee- bass guitar
Martyn Barker- drums / guitar

They said, or rather advertised, that this would be a production with past stars of As You Like It coming together. We fondly imagined Pippa Nixon & Alex Waldmann from easily the best version we ever saw at the RSC in 2013. Blimey, that’s not what they meant at all. We have Geraldine James as Rosalind and Malcolm Sinclair as Orlando. Robin Soans was in that 2013 version, but as Corin, ten years later he’s Duke Senior. David Fielder (Silvius here) was Adam in the RSC 2013 version.

Age-blind? That can work when set up properly as in the marvellous “Bunbury Players” version of The Importance of Being Ernest, set as an amateur dramatic group performimg the play, with senior members naturally grabbing the plum roles. It can be a total train-crash as in the Mark Rylance-directed abysmal version of Much Ado About Nothing with James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave in the lead roles. It can be so-so as in Nigel Havers’ Private Lives tour. The best theatrical tale of age-blind actor managers is Terence Rattigan’s Harlequinade, where the actor-manager is rehearsing his well-trodden Romeo, when an abandoned daughter turns up and he discovers he’s a grandfather.

The point is that it’s NOT age-blind here at all. The concept is explained in a prologue, which is that actors who did the play 45 years ago in 1978 are returning to do it again, well, those who are still alive. They’ve had to flesh it out with four young actors. Some previews half-suggest this is true. It’s not. They never did it together. The cast are often over 70, though we thought Maureen Beattie as Celia could have got away with it among younger actors. Celia always was the part to play.

This is what the RSC says:

When the cast of As You Like It returns to the rehearsal room after 40 years, memories are reawakened and old friends reconnect, but the rehearsal room is just the beginning and a journey full of surprises awaits. Let Omar Elerian’s bold reimagining transport you to a world beyond the Forest of Arden where time stops and the clock unwinds to take us on an adventure where playfulness reigns.

So there is a frame concept. A rehearsal room. Ah, the National just did that with The Motive & The Cue. I was hoping it wouldn’t obscure the story as it’s the only comedy I can’t instantly summarise the plot of. I’ve said this on past reviews. It remains true to an extent. Too many yokels. Pastoral gone beyond. The Motive & The Cue is based on Gielgud directing Richard Burton in Hamlet, and they chose to do it as if in a rehearsal room so as to focus on the language rather than set and costume. Was that their idea with As You Like It? It happens to a degree in that some lines stood out I hadn’t really noticed before. Then the most famous lines of all in the play, Jacques on the seven ages of man, was done seated at the back, so under-played.

One of the problems of playing around with a concept version of a play, is that part of the humour has to rely on knowledge of the base play. That is a major issue in this production. It asks too much of someone who has never seen or read it, and Shakespeare should work for people seeing it for the first time (I quote Nicholas Hytner) .

The initial scenes in Duke Frederick’s court are heavily cut and raced through so that the animosities of Oliver and Orlando, and Duke Frederick to his niece, Rosalind, really require prior knowledge. A prologue and epilogue have been added. The epilogue is brilliant.

A major advantage of the highly-experienced cast is that everyone can project, and weight a Shakespearean line, and has clarity of diction. That is certainly not a given with younger actors. They get humour from age, but only wisely use it as a device early, and don’t flog it. So there is just one example of pretending to dry and asking for a prompt, a touch of creaky knees, a very gentle and weedy and short wrestling match. On the other hand, a young actor is also prompted through a wooden speech, line-by-line.

The cast drift on, chatting to the audience. The stage is brightly lit by overhead panels (much like our kitchen or any rehearsal room). That spills over into a lit audience early on. Dynamic lighting only arrives in the second half, though spotlights are used for speeches on the walkways.

I felt the concept hit its best-before date about two thirds through the first half. You’d got used to the idea of an uncostumed brightly lit space, and I was missing the magic of the Forest of Arden badly, and I was definitely feeling bored. I was beginning to equate it with the Michelle Terry ‘no director, choose your own costumes’ early Globe productions, and that is a major negative. One of the issues of everyone in jeans and tracksuit bottoms, is that there is no visual marker of Oliver’s wealth in relation to his impoverished brother, Orlando. The doubled-up dukes, Senior and Frederick, don’t stand out as any different than the rest of the cast. The wrestler is in ordinary clothes.

They redeemed it with the closing song with a three piece rock band descending in a cage from on high, the whole cast dancing – they’re all still sprightly – and a lead guitarist with a Les Paul on radio mic appearing for a searing solo. This is Andy Davis, and Touchstone proudly tells us he played on John Lennon’s Imagine. Indeed he did, though on the album, not the title song. He was in the band Stackridge, who I saw back in the day.

The second half adds a lighting plot and gradual accretion of a little more costume. Geraldine James and Malcolm Sinclair are worthy leads, both adding feel and gentle pathos to the roles. I loved both performances. Maureen Beattie truly excelled as Celia, but then every time I’ve seen it I’ve praised Celia.

Touchstone is James Hayes. It’s an outstanding performance. Shakespeare clowns always need re-interpretation and reaction to the audience. Touchstone is a particularly difficult one if you stick to the text. He doesn’t, but he also avoids the trap of abandoning it altogether. Lots of costume changes help. He is relaxed about going on asides such as the death of Christopher Marlowe. He notes noises in the audience.

In the last five minutes, the rehearsal room wall lifts, Rosalind appears in a gorgeous bridal costume, and we see misty three dimensional trees, the magic wood at last. Not that Shakespeare’s Forest of Arden would have been pine forest left over from a Scandinavian play. It reminds us only too much of what we have been missing. That final set looks atmospheric . Why waste it for just a few minutes?

I note that the incoming and much-needed new artistic directors, Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey, point out in the programme introduction that they are writing in their first week, and that they had nothing to do with the 2023 choices. That’s obvious to me. This production is theatre preaching to a choir who know the words already. I suspect that and the clarity of the cast and quality of acting garnered so many four star reviews from critics who should know their Shakespeare. It is classy acting, and there is a “five star” ending to each half. But in between it sags and we note the lack of visuals.

While I thought the experienced cast all performed extremely well, in the end the RSC should be demonstrating a play done as well as possible for NOW in the main theatre, not musing on what it might be like with elderly actors revisiting it. If you want to do that sort of clever-clever riff on the original play, well, that’s just what The Other Place at Stratford was designed for (or the Wanamaker at the Globe, or the Ustinov Studio at Bath, or the Sherling Studio at Poole). It is NOT stuff for the main stage. Just cut the expensive (and wonderful) ending and put it in a simpler space.

Karen goes with Fiona Mountford’s two stars. I was initially going for three, but then comparing other reviews by me, I think 2 stars is right.

**

Footnote- for the third time my companion found the RSC headphones for hard of hearing failed completely. She put in her hearing aids instead, but prefers a direct sound feed. Hearing aids pick up audience noises! As I said last time, Daniel Evans needs to bring in the Chichester tech crew to sort it. Then again he needs to bring in the entire Chichester Festival Theatre mindset throughout the entire RSC.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

I read them in advance. I thought Fiona Mountford was out on a limb and harsh, but having seen it , I agree with her points.

four star
Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph ****
Clive Davis, The Times ****
Dave Farganoli, The Stage ****
What’s On Stage ****
Susannah Clapp, The Observer ****
Simon Tavener, The Reviews Hub ****
three star
Arifa Akbar, The Guardian ***
two star
Fiona Mountford, iNews **

LINKS ON THIS BLOG

Given the long list of RSC productions listed in the programme, I am surprised I haven’t seen and reviewed more of the cast before. But then we only became RSC regulars in 2011.

AS YOU LIKE IT:

As You Like It RSC 2013
As You Like It, Globe 2015
As You Like It, National Theatre, 2015
As You Like It, Globe 2018
As You Like It, RSC 2019
As You Like It, RSC 2023
As You Like It, Globe 2023
As You Like It, RSC 2024
As You Like It, Ralph Fiennes Season, Bath 2025

MICHAEL BERTENSHAW
The Merchant of Venice, The Globe 2015

OLIVER COTTON
Richard III: Wars of The Roses, Rose Kingston (2015)
Henry VI: Wars of The Roses, Rose Kingston (2015)
Edward IV: Wars of The Roses, Rose Kingston 2015

DAVID FIELDER
Twelfth Night, ETT 2015 (Sir Toby Belch)
All’s Well That Ends Well, RSC 2013 (Lafew)
As You Like It, RSC 2013 (Adam)
Hamlet, RSC 2013 (gravedigger)
Richard III RSC 2012 (Derby)

GERALDINE JAMES
The History Man (TV series)

MALCOLM SINCLAIR
Pressure by David Haig, 2018 (Eisenhower)
Quartermaine’s Terms, Brighton 2013 (Eddie Loomis)

ROBIN SOANS
Hamlet, RSC 2013 (Polonius)
As You Like It, RSC 2013 (Corin)
Echo’s End by Barney Norris, Salisbury 2017 (Jasper)

EWART JAMES WALTERS
Troilus & Cressida, RSC 2018 (King Priam)
Sweet Bird of Youth, Chichester 2017
King Lear  – RSC 2016
Hamlet, RSC 2016
Julius Caesar, RSC 2012

ROSE WARDLAW
Blithe Spirit, Bath 2019
Eyam, Globe 2018
The Winter’s Tale, Globe 2018