AS YOU LIKE IT: Shakespeare, Derby Playhouse till 23 June

Derby

AS YOU LIKE IT: William Shakespeare
Derby Playhouse: Tkts 01332 363275 www.derbyplayhouse.co.uk
Runs: 2h 50m: one interval: till 23rd June
Performance times: 7.30pm eve (except Suns), 2.30pm matinees 2nd, 6th, 9th, 13th 16th 20th June
BSL Translated Performances 2.30pm 16th and 7.30pm 21st
Audio Described Performances 2.30pm 16th and 7.30pm 20th June
Review: Alan Geary: 31st May 2007

A disappointingly plodding production.
It’s not often that a production stands or falls because of its costumes but this one does: it falls.

There are other shortcomings, but most of these seem to flow from the fact that everyone at court, except of course the down-trodden Orlando (Adam Burton), is in Nazi-style military uniform. Rosalind (Yesse Spence), tall and Teutonic, looks like the commandant of Ravensbrück concentration camp and Celia (Sarah Quintrell), shorter and dark-haired, like an airline pilot.

Comedic potential in the opening scenes is crushed under the weight of the atmosphere thus created. When Rosalind and Celia engage in supposedly light-hearted frolic; it looks inappropriately homoerotic. And it makes nonsense of Rosalind’s idea of discarding her feminine garb for the flight to the forest. Even there the banished Ferdinand (Peter Harding, who also plays Frederick), at the same time as moaning about the hardships of life in the sticks, is sporting collar and tie and the beautifully cut tweeds of an Edwardian gentleman.

Proceedings having plodded for most of the first half it’s too late thereafter to establish the right mood.

Ken Bradshaw’s Touchstone, despite a wacky check suit, is never funny except when he’s wooing the buxom Audrey (Sophie Abelson); the rest of the time he’s quibbling - always a problem even in Shakespeare at his best. Frederick is never sufficiently villainous; at one point a burst of panto-like sound is used in an attempt to help him out.

To be fair, there are some enjoyable moments. The scene where Orlando is scattering the forest with love doggerel is relatively successful and so is the one where Rosalind, disguised as Ganymede is trying to coax him into falling for her by pretending to be the woman she actually is. The magical bit near the end with Hymen casting his spell is rather striking.

There’s also some good acting. Sian Reese-Williams gives a spirited account of Phebe and Richard Adams makes the most of the part of Corin. Spence, in Rosalind’s splendid address at the end, communicates with the audience in a way which she never quite manages during the rest of the play.

Sadly, this production represents a fall from the standards lately achieved at the Playhouse.

Cast
Oliver/Lord: Richard Hansell
Orlando: Adam Burton
Jaques de Boys/Lord/Charles/Amiens/William: Kwaku Ankomah
Adam/Corin/Hymen: Richard Evans
Frederick/Ferdinand: Peter Harding
Le Beau/Lord/Silvius/Sir Oliver Martext: Leon Williams
Touchstone: Ken Bradshaw
Celia: Sarah Quintrell
Rosalind: Yesse Spence
Jaques: David Hobbs
Phebe: Sian Reese-Williams
Audrey: Sophie Abelson

Director: David Freeman
Designer: Dan Potra
Lighting Designer: Wolfgang Goebbel
Composer: Howard Moody
Musical Director: Kevin Towse
Sound Designer: Paul Delaney
Fight Director: Kate Waters

2007-06-01 20:20:04