“Spending the evening in the Forest of Arden with this great group of performers was a night well spent.”
Julia Newbould
3.5 Stars
Venue: Flight Path Theatre
Marrickville
Dates: Until March 14th.
As You Like It is one of Shakespeare’s less often staged plays. With a cast of over 20 players, it can be daunting to produce.
But this hasn’t deterred Fingerless Theatre. They’ve cut the cast to 13, even managing to cast for a couple of sheep, and have injected fresh energy into the Shakespearean rom-com.
Director Alex Kendall Robson said he ostensibly set the play for his own amusement in his golden summer of 2013-2014. “The time has a warm glow in my mind, as every second Instagram post had those grainy and saturated old filters. Hipster culture was riding high, but not yet ironic or cringe. Mumford and Sons and The Lumineers were stomp-clap-hey-ing their way into our hearts.”
Music director Zachary Aleksander has produced some fun musical interludes from some Celtic-sounding toe-tapping numbers to the Vicar of Dibley’s theme tune of Psalm 23, to Whitney Houston’s “I wanna dance with somebody.” Aleksander, who also assumes the role of Touchstone in the play, has an extensive background as a character-musician, playing cello, guitar, banjo, piano, accordion, bass, ukulele, and percussion.
The play opens with a violinist playing Vivaldi’s Winter, from the Four Seasons – which remains the season in the French Court. Moving to Arden, it turned to Spring. A nice touch.
The play centres on the love story between Rosalind and Orlando, a fun romance involving disguise and hidden identity. Behind the love-at-first-sight romance, where the couple has just met and fallen, Rosalind has been banished from the French Court and is hiding in the Forest of Arden where her mother has also taken refuge, as has Orlando who fled after his brother tried to have him killed.
Robson has chosen to focus on the sweetness of the play, and the cast has conveyed the lightness and joy with humour, a modern comedic delivery, and a focus on Shakespeare’s bawdiness. He also performs the dual roles of Jaques (the melancholy lord) and Corin (the shepherd). His delivery of “All the world’s a stage…” is fresh and thoughtful. A highlight!
Not one of Shakespeare’s finest, the plot of As You Like It is thin and overly contrived, but the joy that the cast imbues into the production makes it a play worth seeing.
With so many roles to cover, the ensemble is able to truly showcase their talent. The cast can sing, play instruments and double, sometimes triple up as characters. And they all know how to bring out the humour of the play.
Jade Fuda as Rosalind is a standout. Her delivery of the Shakespearean dialogue is clear and meaningful, and changing her emotions gives her opportunity to show her immense comedic chops. Pat Mandziy as Orlando is perfectly cast as Fuda’s foil. Max Fernandez seemed to ease into each character, showing smooth comic timing and presence as Le Beau/Amiens/Hymen.
Spending the evening in the Forest of Arden with this great group of performers was a night well spent.
Three and a half spring flings
Julia Newbould, Theatre Now
