When directors choose to set plays written in a particular period in a space and time not at all suggested (at least not that clearly) by the playwright, they run the particular risk of being gimmicky.
The faux pas in question consists in distracting the audience from the brilliance and worthiness an actor might bring to the worthy lines by focusing its attention on the sheer ‘ingenuity’ of props, costumes, lights, sets, toys, whatever elements of the (re)setting that are supposed to be new, original, marvellous. Better a Hamlet-or an As You Like It-that’s well acted and in tights rather than out-of-tights (the imagination reels) and done in such a way that any real actorly effort becomes a sideshow.
Antoni Cimolino (who used to be in Stratford’s acting company himself before going on to become a festival manager)’s radiant production of As You Like It sets Shakespeare’s story of gender-bending in the forest of Arden in the Anglo-American 1960s (with a hint of the 70s), complete with bell-bottoms and folk-inspired rock versions of the play’s songs (As You Like It has more songs than any other Shakespearean play), written for this production by local popsters Barenaked Ladies.
Like any good gambler, Cimolino plays to win, and does: his As You Like It is a fun, visionary re-imagining of the play that becomes more and more relevant to our culture with every new twist and turn.
The 60s re-setting may not seem like much of a stretch-indeed, given that the play glories in ambiguities of sex and gender, and a theme of ‘freedom’ more generally, that time period may seem like the perfect fit. But hippie notions of sex and freedom are not necessarily those of Shakespeare-one might not necessarily suppose that the Bard was more conservative than the Rolling Stones (or the Barenaked Ladies, for that matter), but one might readily imagine his philosophical definitions of freedom playing out, as it were, through a different set of pipes than those of BNL singer Steven Page.
That said, Cimolino is able to demonstrate that the 60s truly are an excellent aesthetic template on which to re-imagine As You Like It, a success largely due to his full and very non-cliché concept of what that era really meant. With this production, you get flower power and folk music. But a Romantic sadness (so much a part of 60s art, yet so often censored by nostalgia) is here, too.
This is most palpably on display in the poetic performance of Graham Abbey as Jaques, the melancholic cripple who loves (and loathes?) nothing more than a good dramatic interruption of merrymaking by poignant, unhappy reflection-by himself, of course. One can almost feel Abbey’s Jaques, a wounded dark angel, savouring yet hating the thud of his crutches on the boards as he arrives and departs.
On the opposite end of the emotional spectrum is Hymen, the god of marriage who appears at play’s end to officiate at assorted weddings: Hymen here is presented as Hindu god, or rather a sanitized, Westernized, New Age version of a Hindu god, and thus most loyal to the whole Anglo-American 60s theme.
It’s an easy part-other than his few lines, jolly crowd-pleaser Bernard Hopkins just has to be wheeled around on an impressive-looking flower-decked dais with his arms stretched out, and he does this beautifully.
Ironically, this production of As You Like It is true to the 60s in a further way that the director could only have intended: all traces of homoeroticism in the Forest of Arden are subtle and below the surface. The interactions of Rosalind (the girl disguised as a boy disguised as a girl who was played in Shakespeare’s time by a boy actor, and here by Sara Topham) and her/his smitten lover Orlando (Dion Johnstone) actively de-emphasize the homosexual implications of Orlando’s love for his girlfriend when she’s disguised, which are plain in Shakespeare’s text in ways that historians of sex still continue to debate.
One recalls that the Stonewall Riots in New York City that started the modern gay liberation movement did not happen until 1969. Before then, all was code. This crypticness is also emblematic of Cimolino’s As You Like It-in that sense, and others, the director remains true to his setting.
Keen on making the trip, but are short on cash? The Stratford Festival’s PlayOn program makes your out-of-town sojourn more affordable. Those aged 18 to 29 can score tickets to plays for only $20 by registering for the program (it’s free) online at at stratfordfestival.ca/playon.
Members gain access to the best available seats for dozens of designated performances for only $20 per ticket.
Each week during the Festival season (which continues to November 6), the a new set of eligible performance dates for the PlayOn discount are posted on the website.
There is a limit of two tickets per person, per performance. Tickets can be bought online with a credit card, or in person at the Festival box office using credit card or cash. Proof of age is required at the box office to pick up tickets.
PlayOn members also have the opportunity to receive savings coupons for restaurants, accommodations, and services in Stratford, as well as information on transportation specials.
