THEATRE
As You Like It
The Globe, London

THE small cast of the Globe’s touring ensemble makes a big impact with this lively version of Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy.  
 
Emma Ernest, in a superbly confident professional debut, seizes the dream role of Rosalind with wonderful comic timing.  
 
In her expert hands Rosalind is both exhilarated and confused by the twists and turns of her gender-swapping deception, often barely in control of the artifice yet enjoying it hugely nonetheless.
 
With the excellent Anna Crichlow as cousin Celia, amusingly appalled at Rosalind’s lovelorn contortions, Ernest forms a splendid double act as the two tussle gently over the worst excesses of Rosalind’s joyful deceit.
 
There are, too, enjoyable performances from most of the rest of the ensemble, with Katy Secombe’s Touchstone responsible for many of the funniest moments, including a slapstick dance routine with her bearded beau, Mark Desebrock, who plays an especially air-headed Audrey.
 
Perhaps because the bare Globe stage, shorn of scenery, leaves the forest so much to the imagination, it’s difficult under Brendan O’Hea’s admirable direction to pick up the play’s traditional focus on the simple pleasures of rural existence.  
 
Instead, with the stage full of strong women and largely quiescent men, concentration fastens on to a couple of its other main themes – the many faces of love and the complicated tapestry of gender relations.  
 
It’s none the worse for that; in fact it’s a refreshing, bouncy interpretation that's a credit to everyone involved.
 
At the Globe until August 29: https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on/as-you-like-it-globe-on-tour-2021/