As You Like It

Greg McNeill, Jovana Miletic and Grace Simbert. Image by Gary Marsh Photography.

As You Like It is among Shakespeare’s most popular comedies, and directors are always on the look-out for new and original approaches to its presentation. Black Swan opted to play this one in modern dress, with Rosalind and Cecilia as a pair of giggling schoolgirls, while Orlando and the other young men in the cast had a slightly bogan look about them, with daggy jeans and hoodies being their standard outerwear.

Modern dress can work well in the histories, in which many of the main characters can be seen as cyphers for a universal type. The self-important aristocrat or politician is a classic character, whether he appears in Ancient Rome, Plantagenet England or in an imaginary world such as we see in the comedies. Even though this is a comedy, the usurping duke and his entourage echoed this almost archetypal stock character and his minions: in fact, Geoff Kelso was at times terrifying. He played both dukes and never were the two brothers depicted so differently, even when portrayed by two actors!

The modern dress did not detract from the more dramatic scenes, but in the first half of the performance, suspension of disbelief was not easy in the lighter scenes. Two girls in rather posh school uniforms, constantly texting and playing games on their mobile phones, sat ill with lines such as Celia’s ‘Herein I see thou lovest me not with the full weight that I love thee.’ Even the actors seemed a tad uncomfortable.

Yet there were occasional magic moments before interval, Geoff Kelso’s powerful first entrance being one. Another was the fight between Charles and Orlando, cleverly choreographed by Andy Fraser, who also played Charles, the pro wrestler who met his match in our hero, Orlando (James Sweeny). The pair gave us what looked like a send-up of the carefully staged fights often seen in today’s TV wrestling. You know they are not going to get hurt, but there is always the chance that they will, especially when one actor has to take a fall from the stage into the pit!

However, after interval, everyone except the usurping duke and his cronies had absconded to the Forest of Arden and changed into dowdy clothing that did not create the disconnect that was so apparent in the first half, and the players appeared more settled in their roles.

Later, Andy Fraser made a reappearance as the lovesick William, and like Geoff Kelso, he demonstrated a striking ability to play two very different roles in the one play. The same can be said for Igor Sas, who was unrecognisable in the role of Adam. I really thought he was a much older man, so well did he depict the old retainer of the exiled duke. He popped up again at the end in the guise of Shakespeare himself, who took the place of the rather useless character of the exiled duke’s middle son, who is so obviously a walking, talking plot device that the play is probably better off without him.

Brendan Hanson played not two, but three very disparate characters: a crazy, high-camp Le Beau, a pleasantly-voiced Amiens and an earnest bicycle-riding Sir Oliver Martext. In this role he reminded me of the classic curate, so often depicted in plays of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is obvious that versatility is a pre-requisite for engagement by our State Theatre Company!

So, on to the players who only had to slip into one character per performance. Once the slightly unsettled feeling of the first half had vanished, we got solid interpretations from everyone, no matter what parts they played. Luke Hewitt as Touchstone made a nice foil for Steve Turner’s suitably sombre Jaques, while the rustic characters, Silvius (Nick MacLaine), Corin (Greg McNeill), Phebe (Cecelia Peters) Audrey (Caitlin Bereseford-Ord) and William (Andy Fraser) did very well with a variety of accents. McNeill’s conversion of his character from a French shepherd to a cigarette-rolling Australian cocky farmer was a stroke of genius, making this minor character into a highlight of the production.

And so to our two lovely ladies, Celia (Grace Simbert) and Rosalind (Jovana Miletic). These girlie cousins are not easy to play. Rosalind is the only female main character in the Shakespearean canon, and she has more lines than any other woman in his entire oeuvre. To think that she must have originally been played by a prepubescent boy who had to pretend to be a girl who was in her turn pretending to be a boy is somewhat mind-boggling. Miletic did more than justice to the role. She is a fine addition to the company, and I hope she will remain with them for a while.

Whoever plays Celia has a difficult job. She cannot steal Rosalind’s limelight, and in fact there no opportunities for her to do so. Before we even meet the girls, Le Beau does a bit of the old nudge-nudge-wink-wink routine, implying that there is more to their relationship than cousinly affection. This is not the case, but the relationship between the pair is indeed rather like that of husband and wife. Celia is always the quiet, charming young lady, almost like a wife who continually praises her husband, supports him in all things and is quite happy to stay in the background. Celia is, perhaps, one of the most difficult supporting characters to get right, and Grace Simbert played the role with quiet aplomb and great charm. She only graduated from WAAPA last year and I think we can expect great things from her.

This As You Like It is a slightly mixed bag, but overall a worthwhile realisation of a much-loved play. Congratulations to director Roger Hodgman and the entire team, especially the designers and constructors of the wonderful forest set, and to Ash Gibson Grieg for his highly original settings of the songs.