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By Carol Davis
SAN DIEGO — About ten minutes into director Adrian Noble’s rendering of Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy, As You Like It, the strangest sight of all left me awe-struck.
After the opening scenes were played and we got the gist of Shakespeare’s charming garden romp, (more on that later) a set of metal rolling gates opened upstage and a box car (think concentration camps trains) comes to a grinding and screeching halt in the middle of the stage. The train doors are pulled open and the exiled Duke Senior (Bob Pescovitz) and his men are pushed into the cars.
As the doors slam shut the women who were trying to either enter the cars or say their last goodbyes are pushed back. I almost left the theatre sick to my stomach. Is this supposed to be a comparison to the death trains? Were they going to the camps, say Auschwitz?
What were you thinking Mr. Noble?????????
Set in the 1930’s As You Like It for the most part is played out in the enchanted Forest of Arden, (Ralph Funicello) about as far away from death camps as one can imagine. Surely other images might have been more prudent to depict a particular time frame. (Nuff said about that.)
Deirdre Clancy’s stunning gold shimmering period gowns fit the women beautifully and period tuxedos are perfect for the men in the court and more rugged looking outfits for the forest dwellers gave the production a somewhat classy look turned rustic.
What would a Shakespeare play be like if it didn’t involve some sort of sibling rivalry, cross dressing and disguises and riddles? This one alas is no different. Brothers Orlando (Dan Amboyer) and Oliver (Jay Whittaker) are at odds with each other. Oliver wants Orlando out of the way so he alone will have what he thinks is rightfully his.
He arranges a wrestling match, as the evening’s entertainment, with the muscular Matthew Bellows as the champ, Charles (no last names needed here). The idea is getting rid of his brother as well as amusing the guests, and the hit is on. To Charles, make sure Orlando doesn’t come out alive.
Much to the chagrin of their father, Duke Frederick (a blustery and over the top Happy Anderson) Orlando is the winner of the match (credit fight director Steve Rankin for a beautifully choreographed fight) and all hell breaks loose.
With Frederick’s daughter Rosalind (Dana Green) defending and cheering Orlando, she too is banished from the court. Now it’s game on. This is the very same court that he stole from her father, his brother Duke Senior. Rosalind takes the banishment in stride and readies for the long trek to the forest. She might also have ulterior motives to see Orlando again. Her interest in this charming young man is more than a passing fancy; she is smitten as in love at first sight.
With Touchstone (Joseph Marcell) in tow, Rosalind and her best friend and cousin Celia (Viva Font) head off in disguise, to the forest where love, it seems, is in bloom. Here the story plays out in this wonderful Forest where Orlando is desperately seeking Rosalind who is now the young man Ganymede. She plays cat and mouse with Orlando as she struts about like a man but swoons and faints like a lovesick babe and the dwellers sing, dance and frolic. Shaun Davey’s original music (Shakespeare’s lyrics) strummed effectively on his mandolin by Adam Daveline as minstrel Amiens gives a nice lift and easy air to the production.
As the refugees from the court show up in numbers schlepping one thing or another all are welcome and accepted, fed and cared for and friends are easily made and life is a song. It is here that Jacque (Jacques C. Smith is terrific) recites his “seven stages of man” where it is echoed in unison and with delight by the wonderful ensemble of forest dwellers. Another of the more touching scenes is watching young Orlando carrying the near exhausted and worn out Adam (Charles Janasz) into the colony in his arms like a sick child.
Luckily, Noble’s earlier folly faded into background noise in an otherwise charming show thanks to Dana Green’s Rosalind, Viva Font’s Celia, Dan Amboyer’ Orlando, Jacques C. Smith’s Jacque, Charles Janasz’s Adam, Joseph Marcell’s Touchstone and an exciting wrestling match reminiscent of the days when our family used to gather round the 10” Zenith and watch ‘professional wrestling’.
As for the characters in As You Like It, “All’s Well That Ends Well”.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: In repertory with Richard III and Inherit The Wind through Sept 30th
Organization: Old Globe Theatre
Phone: 619-234-5623
Production Type: Comedy
Where: 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park
Ticket Prices: start at $29.00
Web: theoldglobe.org
Venue: Lowell Davies Festival Stage
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Davis is a San Diego-based theatre critic, who may be contacted at carol.davis@sdjewishworld.com