Play Review

 

The play review may include the following:

 

• A brief plot summary
• A reaction to the performances
• Comments on the set, lighting, costumes, and music
• Your evaluation of the play including strengths and weaknesses

 

I attended a performance of Shakespeare’s As You Like It at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven.  The play was directed by Sir Peter Hall, and the cast was made up of classically trained English actors.

The play is one of Shakespeare’s greatest comedies according to critic Harold Bloom.  The central plot involves the love affair between Orlando and Rosalind.  They first meet and fall in at a wrestling match, in which Orlando defeats Duke Ferdinand’s man, Charles.  However, they are separated when Orland’s brother, Oliver, plans to kill him, and Rosalind is banished by Duke Ferdinand. Both Orlando and Rosalind flee to the Arden Forest, but Rosalind dresses as a man in order to protect herself and her cousin Celia, Duke Ferdinand’s daughter.  Orlando, now deeply in love, wanders through the forest putting love letters on the trees.  Rosalind finds them, and when she meets Orlando, still dressed as a man, she offers to play Rosalind to teach Orlando how to woo properly.  Phebe, a young maid who is the love of Silvius, also falls in love with Rosalind.  Rosalind ultimately finds a way to reveal her true identity, marry Orlando, and get Phebe to marry Silvius.

Rosalind is one of the great comic characters in literature. She has the wit of Hamlet and the humor of Falstaff, but in her deceptions she hurts no one but manages to bring them together by the magic of her personality.  The actress who plays her must display her wit, intelligence, and charm, as well as her ability to love all and transfigure those who oppose her.  Rebecca Hall, who played the role of Rosalind, gave an exceptional performance.  Just the opposite of the Elizabethan ideal of beauty, she was tall, dark, and plain, but transformed herself into beauty by sheer force of her personality.  Perhaps, the most difficult part of the role is her male alter ego, Ganymede, who she plays admirably.  She is at once a believable man, while it is very clear to the audience that she is always Rosalind.

Other outstanding performances were Nigel Pegram, who played Adam, Orlando’s servant.  Shakespeare, himself, played Adam, and Nigel Pegram was able to evoke a shadow of the bard in his monologue “Master, yo, and I will follow thee….”  Phillip Voss, who played Jaques (prounced Jay-ques), added both sardonic humor and cynical counterpoint to the play.  His delivery of “All the world’s a stage,” brought both laughter and well-deserved applause from the audience.

The music, composed for this performance by Mick Sands, was exceptional.  The melody for “Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind,” captured the self-pitying tone of the song without being harsh, and had both an Elizabethan and modern feel to it, as did all of the music.  The costumes were a mixture of Elizabethan and 20^th century dress, and were carefully chosen for both their symbolic and dramatic purpose.  For example, Rosland first appears in a red velvet, Elizabethan gown, wears an early 20^th century pair of pants with suspenders, a white cotton shirt, and a brown felt hat when she plays Ganymede, and returns at the end in a white Elizabethan country dress.  Not all of the costumes, however, were as effective.  Two of the women, Celia and Audrey, a country wench, had difficulty with loose fitting blouses, which was distracting.

The weakest element of the play was the set.  While the Forest of Arden was very well done with huge trees and thick greenery projected on the “cyc” wall, the early scenes at Duke Ferdinand’s court did not serve as an effective contrast to the “green world” of the Arden forest.  There was a wall constructed of 2” Styrofoam panels that rose high above the stage. The entire piece was painted a dark gray perhaps to blend into the background.  Instead, it had the appearance of a modern, concrete wall in a parking garage. Despite effective lighting, the wall diminished the effect of the forest and the Duke’s Court.  A door at the base of the wall that stopped working halfway through the performance also served as a distraction.

The lighting was very effective, creating the bright daylight of the Duke’s court, and the shadowy atmosphere of the forest.  The lighting for a winter scene with snow was particularly well done, creating the effect of extreme cold and isolation.

            Despite some of the minor flaws, this production of As You Like It was absorbing and delightful.