In Shakespeare’s plays, the forest is always a magical place, where identity itself becomes more fluid. The idea of casting off one’s clothes to don an altogether new identity is a theme in several of the comedies, but perhaps never to the same degree as in As You Like It, which is currently playing at Washington, D.C.’s Folger Theatre. The play follows Rosalind (Lindsay Alexandra Carter), daughter of a banished duke, who is forced to flee to the forest of Arden dressed as a man after attracting the disfavor of her uncle. There she and her friend, the duke’s daughter Celia (Antoinette Robinson), encounter a host of characters, including the banished duke and Orlando, the son of the banished duke’s right hand man. It’s a tale of mistaken identity and misadventure.
Like most Shakespearean comedies, it ends in a quadruple wedding.
Many productions want to put their own twist on Shakespeare, often by changing the setting to highlight different themes in the play. For the most part, the Folger’s production does not fall into this trap. It embraces the delight of the scheming between Rosalind and Celia, who delight with their banter. Between the two of them, they capture the give and take of female friendship. Rosalind leaps in to new situations wholeheartedly, delighting with her girlish enthusiasm and always ready with a new scheme. Celia is just behind, both encouraging and ready to laugh at the latest scrape her friend has gotten into.
The energy of their performance drives the production, which otherwise lags in the earlier acts. Lorenzo Roberts’s performance as Orlando lacks the fire of the actresses’ performances. His performance feels more like speaking lines rather than fully inhabiting the character.
While it is clear who the characters are, it is less apparent where they are. From the opening scene, the play offers few hints as to the broader context of the drama. Questions like where the drama is taking place, or even in what decade, are left unaddressed. What follows is a mix of vintage, modern, and silly that gives the production an unsettled feel. In the first scene, the cast appears masked and dress for a ball. Moments later, the wrestler Charles (Will Hayes), appears in sunglasses and an undercut to contest the hero Orlando.
The feeling is not helped by the stage itself, which is kept almost entirely bare. This allows for some clever transitions between the court of Duke Senior and that of Duke Frederisk (both played by Allen McCullough). Although the one is usurper and the other banished, they live in parallel worlds, surrounded by attendants, each with his fool. Using the same actors for both courts highlights the parallels between good governance and bad. Both rulers have the power to banish, but one uses it, while the other welcomes in the footsore and weary Orlando.
Over the course of the play, the production comes to find its feet and the final acts have greater confidence than the earlier ones. Leaving the court of the duke for the forest eases the feeling that the play lacks a fixed setting. The courtiers are transformed into a band of outlaws and societal expectations are relaxed. Folger’s production includes a good deal of live music during these scenes, all performed by the actors on stage. It’s a touch that helps to highlight the shifting moods of the play, emphasizing the loneliness of the forest just as later dance scenes speak to the joys of wedded bliss.
And if it all seems a bit unlikely, well, it happened in the forest, where anything is possible.
