As You Like It begins with exile and hatred. Brother is set against brother; childhood homes are stolen; daughters separated from fathers. Shakespeare then turns this potential tragedy on its head, and, instead, tips us headlong into a forest – the Forest of his own childhood, the Forest of Arden.
Shakespeare’s forests are places of transformation, far away from the ‘civilized’ world, and this forest is no exception. We meet lovers, fools and philosophers wittily dissecting and joyfully celebrating the timeless subjects of love and human nature. It is a magical, musical place where force can be turned into farce, and bleak tragedy into sublime comedy.
Seeking a modern analogy for the action of this play, we might start in the mid 1860's against the backdrop of country torn apart lieterally pitting brother against brother. A place where ideologies collide and set brother against brother and one can become an exile in his own land. Leaving this bleak place we could perhaps meet up with the dispossesed in an abondoned farm, philosphizing that it is still a paradise because they are free. And we may further find ourselves in the forests where old desires are left behind and new birth is possible. This analogy might assist us in seeing the play as a reminder of the constant human need to transform restraint into freedom, exile into self-examination and hatred into forgiveness.
As You Like It is one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies. Written around 1599, it may have been the first play performed at Shakespeare’s playhouse, The Globe. Jaques (in our production Jaqueline) quotes the Globe’s motto, “totus mundus agit histrionem,” when she begins her famous “seven ages of man” monologue with “all the world’s a stage.” It’s easy to imagine the character gesturing to the wooden building around them, and to the audience listening raptly before, when these words were first uttered in the newly built theater.
Jaqueline and her speech are only part of this play's appeal. Rosalind, is one of his most revered characters and the largest female wrote he created. Her eloquent wit, her courage, and her agile humor make her a remarkable creatiion. In Shakespearen's original staging she would have been played by a boy. That this boy plays a woman, Rosalind, was a convention of the stage during Shakespeare's time and in itself would have been unremarkable to any of the theatregoers. But Shakespeare's restless intelligence led him to probe the nature of gender and affection, as the boy playing Rosalind then embodied Rosalind dressing up like a boy, Ganymede, who then "pretends" to be Rosalind for Orlando to woo. If mathematical terms might help illustrate and understand this equation, it might go something like this: boy=girl=boy=girl.
And yet in the end, maybe we don’t need analogies or mathematical equations to remind us how powerful and entertaining Shakespeare’s comedies are. Maybe we just need to do them as often as possible in as many ways as possible so everyone can enjoy their timeless messages, to be reminded that what really brings us stronger are our differences and our ability to laugh at our follies. So, on behalf of the many students who have labored lovingly we beg you to enjoy this version as YOU like it.
- Connor
