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GORDON PARSONS relishes a Shakespearean comedy played at pace for sheer delight
AS YOU JAM IT: the cast of As You Like It [Marc Brenner]

As You Like It
The Holloway Garden Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

 

SHAKESPEARE’s reference in Romeo and Juliet to “the two-hour traffic of our stage,” when modern productions of the Bard’s works normally extend to nearer three, has left theatre historians some evidence of how contemporary productions of his plays may have been handled at his bankside Globe theatre.

Perhaps a visit to the RSC’s temporary Avon-side summer theatre with Brendan O’Shea’s 80-minute As You Like It may provide something more of a practical demonstration.

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