Categories

Find Us

As You Like It – Shakespeare Theatre Company

Jordan Wright
November 4, 2014
Special to The Alexandria Times
 

Derek Smith as Jaques (center) with Matthew Schleigh, Nathan Winkelstein, Todd Scofield, Theodore Snead, Timothy D. Stickney and Luis Alberto Gonzalez in the Shakespeare Theatre Company production of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, directed by Michael Attenborough. Photo by Scott Suchman.

Derek Smith as Jaques (center) with Matthew Schleigh, Nathan Winkelstein, Todd Scofield, Theodore Snead, Timothy D. Stickney and Luis Alberto Gonzalez of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, directed by Michael Attenborough. Photo by Scott Suchman.

Director Michael Attenborough (“Sir Michael” is not the title the be-knighted director prefers) has brought an intriguing interpretation of Shakespeare’s timeless As You Like It to the Lansburgh Theatre.  It is so timeless that just to prove it, he has informed the play with an amalgam of period costumes from Elizabethan dresses and 40’s era fedoras and trench coats to hillbilly-inspired Daisy Dukes and Carhartt overalls.  Clearly Costume Designer Jonathan Fensom got the memo.  It is but one of the refreshing aspects of this reimagined production.

Zoë Waites as Rosalind in the Shakespeare Theatre Company production of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, directed by Michael Attenborough. Photo by Scott Suchman.

Zoë Waites as Rosalind of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, directed by Michael Attenborough. Photo by Scott Suchman.

Attenborough mixes up accents too.  Rosalind speaks in the crisp cadence of the British upper crust, and while her cohort Celia (and most of the other actors) sport ordinary American accents, a sexed-up Audrey (Tara Giordano) and her hapless suitor have Southern drawls.  It makes for an appetizingly approachable, far from grandiose, version of Shakespeare.

Fensom is also charged with creating the set design and his intricate use of texture within the spare sets is yet another clue as to what the director wants us to feel.  In lieu of lavish depictions of forests and castles, we are treated to billowing amber silk curtains strung across the stage on a rope that change direction to depict motion, alter mood and provide intimate locations for the changing of scenes.  Instead of trees to depict a woodland, Fensom has colored the scenes and costumes with shades of umber, moss green and ochre and the crimson hues of autumn leaves.

Zoë Waites as Rosalind and Andrew Veenstra as Orlando in the Shakespeare Theatre Company production of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, directed by Michael Attenborough. Photo by Scott Suchman.

Zoë Waites as Rosalind and Andrew Veenstra as Orlando of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, directed by Michael Attenborough. Photo by Scott Suchman.

As you’ll no doubt remember the beautiful Rosalind, here played by Zoë Waites one of Britain’s most notable stage actors, has fallen head over heels for the tongue-tied Orlando (Andrew Veenstra).  In true Shakespearean style the lovers are ill-fated and to make matters worse, they are banished by their royal families.  To seek refuge Rosalind, Celia and Touchstone flee into the fantasy forest of Arden.  Unbeknownst to the trio Orlando has undertaken a mission to find Rosalind in the very same forest.  Yet unlike Romeo and Juliet our all of our adventurers reach a happily ever after conclusion.  You should know that going in since whatever befalls our frustrated lovers there is much frivolous hilarity and enough plot twists to fill an entire season of television rom-coms.  As Touchstone reminds us, “We that are true lovers run into strange capers. But as all is mortal in nature, so is all nature in love mortal in folly.”

There are so many marvelous actors in this play that it’s tricky to laud only a few – but I will – most notably Zoë Waites as the comely and feisty Rosalind, the self-appointed love expert; Timothy Stickney who adds heft, power and magnitude to the dual roles of Duke Senior and Duke Frederick; Adina Verson’s delicately girlish charm as Celia, counterbalancing Rosalind’s transformation into the rough-hewn boy Ganymede; Andrew Weems as the fantastically absurd motley fool, Touchstone; and Derek Smith, who is madly captivating as the snarkily haughty and delightfully melancholy cynic, Jaques.

And though we don’t see her until the last act, look for Valeri Mudek to lend a surprising appeal to the fickle Phoebe.

Zoë Waites as Rosalind, Adina Verson as Celia and Andrew Weems as Touchstone in the Shakespeare Theatre Company production of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, directed by Michael Attenborough. Photo by Scott Suchman.

Zoë Waites as Rosalind, Adina Verson as Celia and Andrew Weems as Touchstone  of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, directed by Michael Attenborough. Photo by Scott Suchman.

In the immortal words of Jaques, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their entrances and exits…” and we will be all the better for watching Attenborough’s original interpretation.

Highly recommended.

Take note:  STC has partnered with the U.S. Botanic Garden to present “Escape to the Forest of Arden”.  To watch a podcast featuring these spectacular gardens while listening to the bard’s poetry recited by some of DC’s finest actors, download here www.ShakespeareTheatre.org/Escape.

Through December 14th at the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Lansburgh Theatre at 450 7th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20003. For tickets and information contact the box office at 202 547-1122 or visit www.ShakespeareTheatre.org.

Comments are closed.