Flight Path Theatre, March 5
6.5/10
A golden moment comes in the first scene of Act IV, when Jade Fuda’s Rosalind (disguised as the youth Ganymede), asks Pat Mandziy’s Orlando what he would say to her, were she his Rosalind. “I would kiss before I spoke,” he replies, and Fuda gives an uncontainable giggle that perfectly encapsulates the multifaceted Rosalind’s girlish ecstasy.
In the same scene, Larissa Turton’s Celia, Rosalind’s best friend, mock-marries the pair, and on Rosalind’s instruction Orlando says, “I take thee, Rosalind, for wife.” Again Fuda fizzes with elation, and again we’re drawn into the wonder Rosalind feels that Orlando should love her as much as she loves him. The cynical Jacques would probably decry it as puppy love, but it’s real to them, and, for the play to work, it must be real to us.
Without such moments of utter enchantment there’s too much danger that we’re busily wondering why the hell Orlando can’t see that Ganymede is Rosalind, simply wearing a cap, trousers and waistcoat in director Alex Kendall Robson’s production (for Fingerless Theatre). But when Fuda locates the epicentre of Rosalind’s innocence like this, she lights up both stage and production. She also catches Rosalind’s humour, albeit it in a slightly goofy guise, and something of this magical character’s self-doubt and vulnerability. The aspect of Rosalind that is undercooked is her startling intelligence. Perhaps it is harder to put that across in such a madcap, even frantic production.
Robson presents As You Like It as if he’s just directed Twelfth Night, and can’t quite shake off the zaniness. He plays Jacques himself, and is the merriest incarnation of that melancholic observer of humanity I’ve seen. The odd thing is, it almost works, but is at odds with too many lines.
Turton is endless fun as Celia, a character who starts out being the dominant party in the friendship with Rosalind, before, over the play’s course (nearly three hours in a very hot theatre), she becomes as subservient to Rosalind as everyone else. In this regard, Fuda and Robson have got much right about Rosalind, one of Shakespeare’s ultimate creations: as the play proceeds, the more she grows into being its polestar.
Robson’s company of 13 includes Zachary Aleksander as a particularly pert version of Touchstone, Sonya Kerr as the two Dukes, now gender-swapped to duchesses, and amusing performances from Meg Bennetts (playing both Audrey and Phebe) and Jack Elliot Mitchell (Adam, Charles and William.)
The production generates considerable mirth by having cast members (notably Max Fernandez and Brea Macey, I think) dressed in white hoodies as sheep, and munching on a square of synthetic grass.
Music abounds, as it should, and is done well, with many cast members playing instruments under Aleksander’s direction, assisted by violinist Hannah Buckley.
It’s a joyous, funny production, and would be even better were the direction and acting handled with a slightly lighter touch.
Until March 14.