‘As You Like It’ by William Shakespeare, directed by Laurie Sansom @ The New Vic Theatre, Newcastle -under-Lyme.
“As You Like It” is one of the best loved works by Shakespeare and so makes an excellent choice as a production for The New Vic to celebrate its sixtieth anniversary and for the Northern Broadsides production company to mark its thirtieth anniversary.
This new production by Northern Broadsides, which had its world premier at The New Vic this week, certainly does justice to both of those anniversaries being both innovative and yet being faithful to the original text.
“As You Like It”, as with so many of Shakespeare’s works, plays with the ideas of gender, mistaken identity and disguise and this production uses clothes to great effect to show those themes, from the Forest of Arden being represented by wooden coat racks, to the rail of clothes which the actors use to hide behind and the clothes hanging above the action from washing lines.
The costumes worn by the cast are a real eye catcher throughout the production from Rosalind (EM Williams) in evening wear at the beginning of the play to Touchstone ( Joe Morrow) who appears throughout with the sartorial elegance of a pantomime dame. A word should go out here to EM Parry who designed both the costumes and the sets. Male and female wardrobes are interchanged, harking back to Shakespeare playing with identity and with the ideas of disguise and swopping of genders.
“As You Like It” has one of the weakest plots of any Shakespearean play but this does not matter at all as the audience is taken to the Forest of Ardern, to where Celia (Isobel Coward) and Rosalind are banished and where both are disguised as brothers. Rosalind has already fallen in love with Orlando (Shaban Dar) whilst Celia seems to have unrequited love for her friend. But we already know that there will be a happy ending with everyone ending up with their true love in this magical world where anyone can be whoever they want to be.
Along the way there is plenty of music and not a few laughs, mostly courtesy of Touchstone and some of the most memorable poetry in the whole of Shakespeare including the wellknown “All the world’s a stage” speech by Jaques. .
Overall this a great way to get back into a live theatre production and become immersed in a magical, accepting and fluid world.
“As You Like It” runs at the New Vic Theatre until February 26th and then on tour around the country until July.
For more details and to book call 01782 717 962 or visit newvictheatre.org.uk
