As You Like It is mostly a play about a large assortment of oddballs living in a forest for some reason. It definitely has a plot, but it also kind of plays out like an eccentric Tudor sketch show. And I’ve seen a lot of productions get lost in the woods (badoom) of its teeming characters and their largely low stakes adventures – you can watch this show a dozen times and not be entirely clear who, say, Silvius is if the director doesn’t lead you through it.
Fortunately dual directors Sean Holmes and Charlie Josephine – plus their creative team headed by designer Paul Wills – are excellent guides though the trees.
This is not a production that (as far as I can tell) comes with a massive high concept and I don’t think the reason why the opening court scene sees the characters dressed set in a sort of eye-poppingly absurd 17th century style – big wigs; insanely silhouetted dresses; vaguely kinky; general Marie Antoinette-on-acid vibes – comes with any great point other than that it looks awesome and it sets up a contrast with the longer more rustic sequence that follows when most of the key cast are banished or run away to the Forest of Arden.
But by making every character as vivid as possible, visually and personality-wise, it’s just a great, boisterous production where you don’t find yourself questioning ‘and who is THAT guy?’ two hours in. From Lola Shalam’s high strung romantic lead Rosalind and Gracie Oddie-Jones as her amusingly laidback posh girl BFF Celia to co-director Josephine’s own turn as insecure wannabe geezer Orlando, all the way to Jonathan Broadbent’s scene-stealing Touchstone who rocks a look I can only describe as ‘French gimp’, it is simply very fun to spend some time in Wills’ whiteboard forest with these people.
And yes, they’re eccentric, but never off-puttingly weird - Katherine Pearce’s Jaques is a lovely, human take on the role, somebody with a sensitive, downbeat disposition rather than the sort of thunderous performative melancholy that the role is typically saddled with.
Globe deputy Holmes is just very good with Shakespeare’s comedies and finding a nice halfway point between the Bard’s sensibilities and more ironic modern ones. In fact I wondered if this production was going to be more difficult, given it’s popping up so late in the season, when the Globe often puts more challenging fare. But not a bit of it - this As You Like It is a burst of late summer sun.
