Jonathan Groff may have been the star that got the audience through the door of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, but on an ill-fated press night this week it was the production team that should have come out for a standing ovation.
About half an hour into director Daniel Evans’s As You Like It, just as our all-male band of escapees was set to flee the Court and head to the Forest of Arden, a technical difficulty brought the show to a halt for over an hour. Luckily, several drinks later, the play resumed to rapturous applause and an overflowing Arden emerged in all its splendour. It was worth the wait. Aside from the not-so-minor technical difficulties, Anisha Fields’s set is exquisite.
We start in a cold and slightly dystopian, futuristic Court set against a harsh white backdrop, the whole cast dressed in black. It makes for beautiful light and shade, thanks to Ryan Day’s lighting design, shadows cast along the stage. There is a particularly striking moment where Groff lies in a bathtub, encircled in a long, see-through black curtain — a floor-to-ceiling mourning veil.
There is a slightly confusingly WWE-style wrestling scene with ring girls walking around, towering in their heels and bunny masks, but it is an excellently choreographed fight scene between Orlando and Charles and the minimalistic, dark set is used well.
The monochromatic world — after a delay — makes way for the most luscious, overgrown, Welsh forest. It emerges from the back of the stage in a beautiful transition that only heightens the bleakness of the Court that was there before.
An ensemble of singers appears from the shrubbery, singing beautiful, melodic a cappella arrangements of Welsh folk hymns that feel almost otherworldly. As You Like It features the most songs of any Shakespeare play, so it is fitting that this rendition feels intensely musical, with some modern pop moments thrown in there for levity — I won’t spoil it but there is a fantastic moment towards the end of the show when Audrey, the country goatherd, bursts into a very familiar, modern tune.
Thanks to composer Theo Jamieson and sound designer Paul Groothuis, the sound is spatialised so the audience feels surrounded by the voices and noises and fully immersed in the world of rural Wales, sheep bleats and all.
Groff, making his RSC debut, is charming and clever and navigates Rosalind’s loquaciousness with stunning ease. Rosalind has the most lines of any of Shakespeare’s female characters and Groff speaks with incredible clarity and feeling.
Jonathan Groff as Rosalind in RSC’s As You Like It
Particularly in the second half of the play, Groff truly soars through what is a substantial amount of dialogue where Rosalind essentially directs the characters through a series of matchmaking moves. The play follows Rosalind after she is banished from court, but not before first meeting Orlando and falling in love. In an effort to find her banished father, she flees to the forest with her cousin, Celia, and disguises herself as a man, Ganymede. Unbeknownst to the women, Orlando has also escaped to the forest and the two soon meet — only Rosalind is in disguise. Rosalind vows to help cure Orlando of his lovesickness by having him woo ‘him’, with Ganymede pretending to be Rosalind.
I would have liked to see more distinction from Groff between when he is acting as Rosalind versus being Rosalind pretending to be Ganymede pretending to be Rosalind…but it is understandable why this could become slightly muddled, especially with the sheer volume of lines.
Jonathan Groff as Rosalind and Fisayo Akinade as Celia in RSC’s As You Like It
Fisayo Akinade as Celia is the standout star of the show, and while I wish Shakespeare had given him more lines, even when he wasn’t speaking, every small movement and facial expression was perfection. He was truly believable as an intelligent, witty young woman — and not just because of a fantastic wig.
Groff and Akinade are so in-sync and so funny and truly feel like best friends. Their relationship feels so real and so joyous and it was a delight every time they were on stage together — even in moments of true darkness at the start of the show.
The all-male casting harks back to the Elizabethan age when all parts would have been played by men, but now with a modern, queer edge carrying a beautiful message that love is love in all the forms it may take, regardless of gender.
Jonathan Groff as Rosalind and Elliot Barnes-Worrell as Orlando
While the whole cast does a great job of making this one of the most accessible versions of a Shakespeare play I’ve ever seen, Groff and Akinade in particular really feel the words they’re saying and the meaning behind them in a way that makes it so easy to understand.
Elliot Barnes-Worrell as Orlando feels more traditional but this works well as a juxtaposition to the playful women, and while the lower-class characters in Shakespeare plays are often overly hammed up for laughs, Tim Preston and Edward Judge as Phoebe and Silvius and Gareth Snook and Greg Haiste as Audrey and Touchstone — the play’s second set of couples — do an excellent job of toeing this line without veering too far into the pantomime.
Audrey has some fantastic costumes courtesy of Colin Richmond — complete with Welsh dragon-emblazoned Dr Martens — and Preston is a marvel as a prim and proper Phoebe. Every moment and mannerism is the perfect level of sassy as the disdainful shepherdess who falls in love with Ganymede but is loved by Silvius.
This is a magical production, and the breathtaking reveal of Arden — even in its adjusted form — is exquisite. In the most beautiful of settings, set to gorgeous melodies, this all-male cast, led superbly by Groff and Akinade soar through Shakespeare’s most joyous play.
As You Like It plays at Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, until 7 November. For more information, and for bookings, please visit www.rsc.org.uk.
Photos by Marc Brenner
