High Water

In Bath for my birthday, which was a whole two weeks ago now, nineveh_uk  and I went to see As You Like It with Harriet Walter in it. Harriet Walter was playing Jacques. I was pleased to find there was more of Jacques than I remembered. I just remembered him coming on lugubriously every now and then and eventually glumly producing the Seven Ages of Man speech. This is very probably because the only other time I have seen a performance of As You Like It, Jacques was played by Alan Rickman. In 1986. 

I did As You Like It for A-level (and Hamlet) and I loved it. It's fun. They all go off to the forest and find out stuff and it all ends happily and people disguise themselves as a boy like in Twelfth Night except they aren't all ganging up on Malvolio. At 18 I mostly read it as the story of the devoted loyalty (definitely loyalty yup) of Celia for Rosalind, going into exile with her and everything. In later life I realised that a lot of this came from having seen it with Celia played by Fiona Shaw.

Here are some photographs from the 1985 Adrian Noble production. I feel third along top row does nothing to dispel my teenage view whatsoever. It was just a pity that when they got into the Forest of Arden, Juliet Stevenson as Rosalind had to wear white trousers and braces and at times a bowler hat that made her look like a mime artist. I had also totally not realised until now that Phebe was played by Lesley Manville as an 80's punk shepherdess.

Anyway, back to 2025. Here is a Guardian review with pictures.

This Forest of Arden was conveyed by projections of actual trees on curtains. I liked the trees being real and not metaphorical. It also picked up on the "sweet lovers love the spring" bit at the end and everyone being cold when they arrive by making it clear that at the start of the play it is winter and the Duke's exiled court all had chunky outdoor-wear jackets, scarves and hats and carried rucksacks, which they sat on and handily carried off with them again. 

Gloria Obianyo and Amber James had great chemistry as Rosalind and Celia but less so with Orlando and Oliver respectively. This is partly the play's fault, especially for Celia and Oliver who only have about 5 seconds to fall in love after Oliver's had a personality change after encountering a lion, but there could have been more sizzlingness between Rosalind-as-Ganymede and Orlando in the wooing-practice-while-dressed-as-a-boy bits. They had it at court but there was a missing layer of "shit I really really fancy this boy what the fuck is going on" from Orlando in the forest and Rosalind revealing herself as being Rosalind at the end just by wearing different trousers didn't help the suspension of disbelief that no-one had recognised her before.

The Guardian reviewer thinks Dylan Moran as Touchstone was a weak link but honestly so much of Touchstone is just not funny that I think having Touchstone played like he's still Bernard Black in Black Books was a plus. He made it funny. Well done Dylan Moran.

Everyone was good, especially Harriet Walter, obviously, who managed to do All the World's A Stage while eating an apple, but I want to mention Imogen Elliott as a perky, modern Phebe in her first role I think, because she was great and if she turns into Lesley Manville, I want to remember I saw her here first. 

I nearly forgot the music. I liked it all being turned into folk songs and Rosalind getting to play a guitar.