Where shall I find one that can steal well?

I usually feel constrained to write a review of a play I've seen only if it's 1) really bad, or 2) really good. As You Like It, at the Utah Shakespearean Festival in 2002, is one of the two best Shakespeare productions I've seen there so far (the other being The Winter's Tale back in 1996). Coincidentally, 2002 was also the year of the USF's odious Cymbeline (and which I'll be posting a review of next time). The best and the worst. What made the difference in As You Like It was, I think, the director's attention to using actors who were actually skilled in speaking Elizabethan theatrical language, along with some carefully orchestrated stage business, with the result that the characters were portrayed believably and sympathetically.

For the first time ever when seeing this play, I noticed how the close and affectionate relationship between Rosalind and Celia provided an effective counterpoint to the fratricidal wrangling of Orlando and Oliver. I don't know why this had always escaped me before. Rosalind and Celia's opening discussion of the gifts of Fortune and Nature, although somewhat shortened, was particularly well-delivered and made them sound like two intelligent and naturally ebullient young women brought low in spirits only by the present circumstances.

All the photos are from the USF website

They were more than a match for Touchstone, who yet managed to make such mundane words as 'pancakes' and 'mustard' sound unaccountably amusing.


Touchstone is, to me, one of Shakespeare's least likable fools, but in this production he was rendered less contemptible in his dealings with the simplistic Audrey by the act of favorably noticing her upon first arriving in the forest of Arden. In almost every forest scene leading up to his proposal (or proposition), Touchstone and Audrey had some sort of interaction: he could not take his eyes off of her whenever their paths crossed; he offered to carry milk buckets for her and gave her flowers. And when Jaques tried to talk him out of an irresponsible marriage, Touchstone allowed himself to be persuaded. He was a very physical clown: when he challenged Audrey's other suitor, William, and threatened to kill him "a hundred and fifty ways", he jumped on William's back in an attempt to bring him down. William, slight but strong, was unfazed and immobile. Touchstone ended up climbing over his shoulder and hanging upside down in front of him. William then picked him up and held him like a baby as Touchstone tried unsuccessfully to put him in a headlock. William was as thick in mind as in muscle, however, and quickly gave up all rights to Audrey's love as soon as she seconded Touchstone's request for him to depart. During Touchstone's address about the quarrel upon the seventh cause, he moved freely about the stage and gesturing in an exaggerated manner, even to the point of executing a Three Stooges kind of slap on old Adam's nose. It was never overdone, though, but suited this clown's lunatic personality.

Portrayed in a slightly different light, that is to say funnier than I have usually seen, was Jaques, who had very little of the melancholy air about him. We heard from Duke Senior and his men that Jaques was melancholy, but I didn't see it. In fact, he often bordered on the merry, albeit laced with sarcasm. There was one thing that changed his contentment into contempt - he can't abide seeing people in love - but there was no sense that he had suffered disappointments or any experience that may have robbed him of his mirth. In the end, his decision to join Duke Frederick as a student of the old religious man didn't make a great deal of sense, unless one considers his aversion to lovers - four weddings and a family reunion might just have been too much for him.


The most enjoyable aspect of this production was Sara Kathryn Bakker's characterization of Rosalind. My awareness was continually drawn to her. It's not that I would call her a scene-stealer - more like an attention-commander. Hers was an articulate, energetic, and passionate Rosalind, with a quick wit and an endearing girlish side that showed itself from time to time. "When I think, I must speak," says Rosalind, and she did, making the language sound so easy, so clear and so conversational, like Shakespeare's words were her own ideas. It was exciting to watch. Bakker's height and facial features kept her from looking particularly boyish as Ganymede, which may be problematic for those who take their cross-dressing seriously, but she had a good sense of timing and vocal nuance, making even such well-known yocks as "Sell when you can. You are not for all markets" sound original and genuinely funny.

The weddings were bright and flowery and funny. Corin appeared on the balcony in the part of Hymen, looking like a grizzled old fairy with wickerwork wings (which William, almost unseen behind him, caused to flap back and forth). Shepherd girls tossed white rose petals down on the couples, who sang in harmony as they danced a country dance. And Rosalind's epilogue was delightful, and little conjuring was required: the cast had done an excellent job of presenting this comedy, and the audience, appreciative already, applauded her on her way.


Highlights of the performance (and there were more than a few):

An Orlando who matched Rosalind in wit, passion, and looks.

An Orlando and an Oliver who looked enough alike to be brothers, and a Celia who actually looked like she could be the daughter of the guy playing Duke Frederick. (Although Duke Frederick and Duke Senior didn't look at all related.)

The wrestling scene, which was one of the best I've seen.

A touching Silvius, who in his longing for Phoebe, went running across the stage calling her name, then ran out of the theatre and up a grassy slope, just visible (and still audible) in the twilight as he leapt and tumbled on the grass.

Very nice costumes, except I thought the capes looked a little too well-made. Or something. They just looked like they didn't quite belong somehow.

At first we were presented with a sorrowing Rosalind - she comes to the recessed part of the lower stage, which was closed with an iron gate, looks through it, hauls it open, then comes forward with her hand on her tummy, and she is almost in tears. She can hardly be cheered by Celia, but finally is. The ensuing "What think you of falling in love?" exchange was so conversational in tone, it didn't sound like acting at all. The audience discovered then that this Rosalind was a bit of a chatterbox.

When Rosalind first meets Orlando, she takes his hand at "The little strength that I have, I would it were with you" and something happens between them. As Orlando is called to the wrestling, Celia pulls Rosalind the other way, but her hand touches Orlando's for as long as possible. Then, a bit later, when she gives Orlando her chain; he can't speak. When he mentions the fact to himself and waves his arm in frustration at "a mere lifeless block", she takes it as a signal to her and says "He calls us back!" She runs back, tells him deliberately "Sir, you have wrestled well, and overthrown / More than your enemies." He stammers. Celia takes her hand and says "Will you go, coz?" Rosalind says "Have with you" in an offhand, "not now" way, her eyes still on Orlando. Finally, Rosalind and Celia run off, laughing. It was little touches like that (Orlando waving his arm, etc) throughout the play that helped make it so delightful.

After the wrestling match, Rosalind comes on with a pillow, smiling. She sits down and a squeal of delight breaks out of her, quickly stifled in her pillow. Celia joins her moments later, and it's very obvious to her what Rosalind has been thinking about on "No, some of it is for my child's father." Then they both squeal into the pillows. It was very teenagerish.

When Orlando takes a walk in the forest, hanging his poems on trees, he doesn't pay any attention to the disguised Rosalind and Celia, speaking his first few lines more to the poems in his hands than to Rosalind. But at (I think) "There's no clock in the forest", he catches sight of her, their eyes meet, they stare . . . till Rosalind recovers herself and starts talking again. This makes sense of Orlando's later line to Duke Senior, "Methought he was a brother to your daughter."

Excellent comic timing when Rosalind's berating Phoebe and, almost without a beat, she says, "Why, what means this change?" And how many times have I heard "Sell when you can. You're not for all markets" and known it was coming? Yet her delivery of the line was such that it received (and deserved) one of the biggest laughs of the evening.

During the mock marriage, Rosalind and Orlando kneel, facing the audience, Celia behind them.
Rosalind says: "You must begin, 'Will you, Orlando . . .'"
Celia: "Go to. Will you--"
Rosalind turns quickly and snatches from Celia one of the two bunches of wildflowers that she has collected.
Celia begins again: "Will you, Orlando, have to wife this Rosalind?"
And so on . . .
Then Orlando says: "I take thee, Rosalind, for wife."
Celia begins to speak, presumably to say "Will you, Rosalind", but Rosalind interrupts her with "I might ask you for your commission; but I do take thee, Orlando, for my husband." Then she kisses Orlando hastily on the cheek, looks around quickly, then tosses the flowers over her head like a wedding bouquet.

Rosalind has an obvious passion for Orlando that grows as she gets to know him better in the forest. At one point, this passion overcomes her: she hurries through her speech at 4.2.147-151 while walking toward him, and almost before she has finished talking she gives him a kiss just long enough to make her and Orlando uncomfortable or embarrassed. Orlando, in obvious confusion, takes his farewell almost immediately.


When Oliver is done telling Rosalind and Celia the story about the bloody napkin, Rosalind faints, falling forward onto her face. It's one of the most realistic stage faints I've ever seen. It reminded me of when I was studying acting and we spent one whole class session on how to faint without killing yourself. I found it very difficult to do and still make it look real.

Touchstone's discussion of the quarrel on the seventh cause was much funnier than I expected. I attribute that to the actor who played him.

The music was very nice throughout, but I especially liked the wedding song, and the dance they did while singing it. And Corin as Hymen was hilarious with his wings. And you could tell that Rosalind and Orlando truly loved each other; they kissed realistically (quite a feat in my book - how much fake-looking kissing have I seen on stage? No passion, no chemistry, no whatever; it looks like they're chewing the same piece of gum is all) and kept looking at each other and smiling, just like happy people in love.


I liked this play so well that I wanted to steal the huge banner advertising it off the front of the building where the gift shop was. There were several huge banners, one for each play, all hanging from the roof, and they were huge things, about 12 or 15 feet tall and four or five feet wide (as I recall). The one for As You Like It showed Bakker as Rosalind disguised as Ganymede. Well, I didn't steal it because I'm not a thief, but my sister and I had a pretty good plan worked out all the same.