Exquisite 'As You LIke It'
William Shakespeare's "As You Like It" is a delicious confection.
A comedy in which battling brothers, devoted cousins, obsessed shepherds and flippant fools traipse around the forest of Arden and stumble into romance, it affirms love at the same time it sends up silly courtly conventions where smitten lovers fall instantly, pine hopelessly and woo earnestly with poorly written poetry that somehow persuades.
A pastoral charmer in which characters flee the corruption and cruelty of the court for the simplicity and camaraderie of the country, "As You Like It" has a thin plot. Duke Senior, usurped for unexplained reasons by his brother, decamps with his loyal subjects to Arden. His daughter Rosalind, banished shortly thereafter, disguises herself as the boy Ganymede and with her devoted cousin Celia and the impertinent fool Touchstone, follows him into the forest. There (disguised as Ganymede) she meets the honorable Orlando (who is in love with Rosalind), whom she agrees to tutor in the ways of love so that he may win the fair Rosalind herself.
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It's a delightful bit of fluff, but it is not merely fluff. Shakespeare tempers his play with insight and a bit of melancholy, which the astute William Brown artfully expresses in his vibrant, clear-headed, exquisitely acted production for Writers' Theatre. Endearing characters drive this slight story and Brown -- who sets the play in the present among a group of political and emotional exiles dispossessed of their titles and alienated from love -- has cast the show perfectly, beginning with the gifted Tracy Michelle Arnold's shrewd and witty Rosalind.
Older than the typical Rosalind/Ganymede, the husky-voiced Arnold brings maturity to the role. Beneath her spirited, emotionally forthright performance, one senses wisdom born from experience. As Ganymede, she gently counters Orlando's overwrought declarations of love for Rosalind observing, "men have died from time to time and worms have eaten them, but not for love." The grounded Rosalind, who embraces the whimsy of love without letting it carry her away, leads the play's misguided lovers to a more mature and ultimately more satisfying understanding of love.
Then there's Larry Yando, superb as the morose Jacques, the play's cynic, whose denial of love in all forms invites pity more than scorn. Brandishing an unlit cigarette and looking like a Beat generation refugee in his oversize trenchcoat and dark glasses, he slinks about the stage, a reminder of the melancholy that tempers the play's merriment. Delivering with dignity and simplicity the bittersweet "Seven Ages of Man" (the famous soliloquy that begins with "all the world's a stage"), Yando held the opening night audience spellbound. His was indeed the most touching performance. The funniest comes courtesy of the inimitable Ross Lehman, in another effortless comic turn as the swaggering, cocktail swilling Touchstone.
The wonderfully emo, abidingly decent Marcus Truschinski plays Orlando, whose inexplicably spiteful brother Oliver (a slick Kevin Asselin as a Fortune 500 heavyweight) denies him the education due him and runs him out of town. Carey Cannon is a smart, vivacious Celia and John Lister (who also doubles as the usurper Frederick) makes a warm-hearted Duke Senior. The adept supporting cast includes fresh-faced Eric Parks as the laughably menacing wrestler Charles and the likable lovesick Silvius in love with Nancy Moricette's disdainful shepherdess Phoebe; the unassuming Tim Gittings as the sagacious shepherd Corin and as Orlando's loyal servant Adam; Carol Kuykendall, channeling a 1930's chanteuse as the sweetly simple Audrey (who Touchstone desires) and earnest David Dastmalchian as William Le Beau, a Duke Senior loyalist, infatuated with Audrey.
Their romantic escapades, play out on Keith Pitts' overgrown, autumnal forest, against a crumbling estate (a metaphor for the worn out conventions the play skewers?) that feels both comforting and ominous, especially when interrupted by the sound of helicopters which send the characters scurrying.
Brown's direction is lucid and his stage pictures lovely. The emotional embrace between Duke Senior and Jacques after the "Seven Ages" speech and the communion of the outcasts inspired by the wistful song "Heigh-ho the Holly" evolve seamlessly. Nothing about this celebration of the transformative power of love and the restorative power of nature is forced or mannered. Yes, it's fluff, but it is beautifully done and I like it well.
"As You Like It"
3#189;stars out of four
Location: Writers' Theatre, 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe
Times: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 6 p.m. Sundays; through April 13. Additional matinees Feb. 27, March 12 and April 9
Running Time: About 2 hours, 35 minutes, including intermission
Tickets: $45-$58
Box office: (847) 242-6000 or www.writerstheatre.org
Rating: Suitable for teens and older