RITA DI SANTO assesses the winners of the most politically charged festival to date
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Theatre Review: As You Like It
There’s little to like in this Shakespearean comedy which, played relentlessly for laughs, ignores its sexual ambiguities
Playing for laughs: Lucy Phelps (Rosalind) and Amelia Donkor (Silvia)
[Topher McGrillis]
KATARZYNA KOSMALA introduces a retrospective by one of the most significant figures in contemporary US photography
MAYER WAKEFIELD is entertained but let down by an audacious production that, sadly, doesn't ring true
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by drama that, despite accomplished performances, cannot overcome an unfocused script
New releases from Sam Carter, Spell Songs and Les Thomas
As You Like It
Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Stratford-upon-Avon
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, no great Shakespeare fan, claimed sardonically that children would enjoy the virtue and philosophy in As You like It while adults would be delighted by the pageantry and wrestling.
Kimberley Sykes’s production, opening the new RSC season, certainly delighted an audience determined to enjoy something in these gloomy Brexit days.
Anchoring the show around the much-quoted line “All the world’s a stage,” she sets the play seemingly backstage with the action resembling a rehearsal session for an upcoming pantomime. The main prop is a costume rack from which the cast members appear to have made their own choices.
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