As You Like It (Cast, Doncaster)

• Laurie Sansom, Northern Broadsides 22/06/22

It was a delightful way to spend a weekday afternoon, to get out of the smug British sun and cool in a local theatre- watching a wonderfully northern production of one of the country’s most well-known plays.

The first thing to credit this dreamlike production for is the set, costumes and overall aesthetic feel of the piece. The height of the stage is lined with clothes hangers that're laced with the sort of floral garments you see on a charity shop rack or some vintage stylist’s frame. The 'Arden Forest' is made up of deep mahogany hat racks posing as trees, and a clothes rail entrenched in spangles of costume is at the back of the stage. 

As You Like It is one of Shakespeare’s comedies of disguise; characters transform and develop with a different cloak on their back and the cast, direction and designers clearly celebrated this aspect. They have let their production carry influence from the costumes the play has potential for. 

The piece is like a patchwork of the clothing around the stage, worn by the characters and is deepened further by the textured writing of Shakespeare. As You Like It is definitely woven into the fabric of most people’s literary consciousness and the play’s design makes (literally) elevated reference to this. 

The production has dissolved any remaining gendered boundaries left by Shakespeare and so emerges this charmingly fluid creation, that doesn’t scrimp on the saucy or the self-aware. These themes are reiterated by the dressing of the actors and the stage- clothing is a tool of expression here as much as it is tool of disguise.

Joe Morrow’s Touchstone ignites the hysterics of the production- with their brilliant and embarrassingly self-referential ‘breaking of the fourth wall’ (much to the delight of the teachers of the GCSE school group lining the front rows). They consistently leak out of the Shakespearean manner and linguistic coding; they make lewd quips and complaints to the audience on the state of the production so far- joking about the set, the script and more. Imagine all the camp and timing of a pantomime dame, but executed with all the style and sensitivity of the best Shakespeare productions.

It’s a delight to watch the slightly more serious characters interact with the comedic tour-de-force of Touchstone. Fluidity is much an artistic theme that this production triumphs in many elements- costume, design and thus gender, as mentioned before, but also the handling of what is Northern Broadsides and what is Shakespearean. There is no abrupt breaking out of Shakespeare and into contemporary dialogue- the two are in synergy and both lend to each other’s effectiveness. 

The comedy of the Shakespeare is artful and multi-faceted, whereas the comedy of the modern moments is instant and out-loud. The two blend and mean that Northern Broadsides are able to deliver an accessible Shakespeare- whilst the obvious high skill of the cast bonds the accessibility to deep and meaningful channels of the Bard.

Rosalind and Orlando are perfectly watchable as the hopeless lovers that of course don't know each other yet. Although, EM William's Rosalind would not be half as delightful without Isobel Coward's Celia to keep her grounded in the morals, comedy and turmoil of their mystical and aristocratic world. The two make a great duo- their stamina is applaudable as they never falter in energy or execution. 

It’s been a long time since I have seen Shakespeare stay so true and still become more fun. There's a fully kitted wrestling match, eerily dynamic movement sequences, soothing acoustic folk numbers are performed... and of course there's a four-way joint wedding and May pole celebration to round things off. (Perhaps it is more pantomime than we thought).

This production is ethereal and boisterous, transcendent and self-aware; the delectable and archetypal ambiguities of Shakespearean comedy are executed with charm and to great success. I loved it.