Review: Sandra on The Bridge Project As You Like It

A pair of crossed reviews: Also be sure to read our other review of The Bridge Project As You Like It.

Image credit: BAM website.

It has been said that comedy is tragedy averted, and the dark atmosphere and staging that pervade the first half of the current Bridge Project production of As You Like It appear to be heavily influenced by the melancholic Jaques long before he makes his first appearance. The dismal sparsely lit stage is framed by two tall spindly trees that have no leaves upon them, and this setting doubles both for the usurping Duke Frederick’s court, as well as for his usurped brother’s woodland home. Court is a threatening place where brother is set against brother and where nieces are banished without a second thought for their welfare. Michael Thomas plays both Dukes (as is often the case nowadays), and this increases the thought that there is no great distinction between the locations of Duke Frederick’s court and the Forest of Arden. The actors may change their costumes, but the pastoral freedom of Arden is not apparent until the play’s second half when the production has moved from winter to spring or early summer.

To continue the melancholia of this production, Christian Camargo’s Orlando has nothing of the young, impetuous lover, but more of the Petrarchan, although he is spirited enough when he physically attacks his brother, Oliver (Edward Bennett), and complains that he had been trained ‘like a peasant’. When Rosalind encounters Orlando in the forest, after his poetry has been plastered over the trees, she mocks him with not having the aspect of a lover. I couldn’t understand what a spirited, feisty Rosalind (Juliet Rylance) could see in him, especially as he was often difficult to hear distinctly. Rylance is a very convincing Rosalind, a young girl of passion who seems equally in love with her cousin, Celia (Michelle Beck), but who permits Orlando to supplant this love.

I heartily enjoyed Thomas Sadoski’s Touchstone; he brought the clown to life and conveyed the idea of a knowing Fool, rather than just a comedian in motley. But why on earth did Alvin Epstein literally have to remove his teeth to play Adam (‘I have lost my teeth in your service’)? I really found it hard to understand him. However, As You Like It is a showcase for strong women, particularly for Rosalind (who defies the fashion and delivers the final epilogue) and for Jenni Barber’s randy Audrey, a girl who seems prepared to open her legs for any man who offers.

Will the next prospective director of As You Like It please think twice whether she has something useful or interesting to add to earlier productions? The current staging doesn’t really stress the difference between the two courts and the two dukes and makes the choice of lovers seem even more mystifying and arbitrary.

As You Like It plays at the Old Vic Theatre in London, UK until 21 August 2010.