AS YOU LIKE IT. To 26 April.
Watford.
AS YOU LIKE IT
by William Shakespeare.
Palace Theatre To 26 April 2008.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 16, 19, 23, 26 April 2.30pm.
Audio-described 19 April 2.30pm.
Captioned 25 April.
Runs 2hr 45min One interval.
TICKETS: 01923 225671.
www.watfordpalacetheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 9 April.
Psychological realism rules amid swishing curtains.
This is as near to a site-specific production as it’s possible to be without actually being site-specific. The actors tread the boards (a forward-projecting tilted circle in Hannah Clark’s design) on a stage that is all the world to a production that celebrates the Palace’s centenary by placing events in late Victorian/Edwardian mode.
This doesn’t mean pure realism; court and forest are represented by plush-red and neutral side curtains respectively. But setting Shakespeare in an age when prose drama ruled is reflected in Brigid Larmour’s production, which works best in moments that can be handled as realistically-spoken, psychologically-focused drama.
So Edward Clayton’s Adam and Corin, plain, unpoetic characters, have a strong sense of life-experience and of Arden’s steady pace of life respectively. Paul Brightwell’s Jaques, a fin de siecle aesthetic type too nice to touch life with his bare hands (and an unlikely candidate for the contemplative life he decides on), makes his cast of mind clear in details, but his extended speeches are unhelpfully fragmented by a determination to editorialise on phrase-by-phrase meaning.
Paul Woodson’s Orlando opens by a tussle with his wicked, top-hatted older brother, whom Simeon Moore gives a plausible front and sour-faced reality. He makes clear that he’s going to have Orlando dispatched because he fears him. No wonder, as Orlando explains his grievances while holding Oliver in a headlock; thereby helping suggest both Oliver’s use of a professional wrestler for his revenge, and Orlando’s prowess in the wrestling-match.
Orlando’s then a decent if dull hero until the moment he possibly sees through ‘Ganymede’s’ disguise – another psychologically-telling point, clearly made. If Orlando often seems somewhat introverted, Lisa Jackson’s Rosalind moves from languid tedium when she’s being tolerated at court to vivacious independence in the forest. If only she’ didn’t feel the needed to decorate every phrase with busy expressions and gestures.
It’s Kelly Williams’ Celia that makes each significant point clear without cluttering things up. Her facial concern when her father denounces Orlando’s family, the clear immediacy of expression that finds appropriate emphases within a natural flow, make hers the most immediate, truly Shakespearean performance here.
Duke Frederick/Duke Senior: Nick Sampson.
Celia: Kelly Williams.
Rosalind: Lisa Jackson.
La Belle/Audrey: Helen Baker.
Charles/William: Tom Hopper.
Touchstone: Anil Desai.
Amiens: Esther Biddle.
Oliver/Sir Oliver Martext.: Simeon Moore.
Jaques: Paul Brightwell.
Orlando: Paul Woodson.
Adam/Corin: Edward Clayton.
Denise/Phebe: Claire Prempeh.
Silvius: Neil Henry.
Director: Brigid Larmour.
Designer: Hannah Clark.
Lighting: Natasha Chivers.
Music: Dominic Muldowney.
Movement: Shona Morris.
Fight director: Kate Waters.
2008-04-11 11:46:18