Photograph: Ellie Kurttz
Director Ellen McDougall’s inclusive take on As You Like It has a sort of ramshackle innocence and openness to it. The casting is gender neutral and the context is fluid. Shakespeare’s play has also been interwoven with bursts of contemporary text written by Travis Alabanza, and Michael Henry’s score is filled with flashes of indy, punk and pop numbers. Max Johns’ costumes feature ruffles and tunics but they are also ripped and torn and layered up with modern-day accessories. Jacques, in particular, looks as if he has stumbled back from a heavy night’s clubbing. Fun was definitely had. But how to make sense of it all?
The first half is buoyed by a lovely sense of warmth, silliness and freedom. That’s largely down to the sparkling chemistry between cousins Rosalind and Celia, who quickly decide to flee to the Forest of Arden rather than bear a life apart. Their deep friendship holds this increasingly fractured production together. When Celia all but growls to Rosalind “Thou and I are one”, there is heat and heartache behind her words.
