As You Like It

On Monday, we saw As You Like It at the Globe, and I was so, so happy that it was a great production. I loved the Jaques, which is tough - that Sans Everything speech can ruin that play if Jaques is trying too hard. The actress playing Rosalind, on the other hand, was - towards the end at least - trying a little too hard and she was getting on my nerves a bit. That's such a weird role. Written for a girl, played by a young boy, where the girl pretends to be a young boy who then pretends to be a young girl so the man she is in love with can practice being in love. It's always fun discussing allllll those layers of acting and gender with students.

Two great things about this production, besides the great actor playing Jaques: first, during the very first scene, where Orlando and Oliver fight, the door for the trap in the floor wouldn't shut completely. It was one of those moments on stage where the actors were having to work around it, but - of course - that was all the audience could think about. Orlando made his exit and Oliver spoke his soliloquy (quite well), and as he turned to address the character who came into speak to him ... it was one of the technicians, dressed in the classic pumpkin pants and a headset, apologizing to the audience and to the actor, saying that they needed to stop and secure the door. The actor handled it beautifully, the audience was both relieved that the problem was solved, and very very pleased about the way it was handled. The actor had to jump back into the text at a tough spot, and the audience was entirely delighted by him at that point (which was fun - no one ever really likes Oliver during Act I) and he was obviously delighted by the energy they offered him.

Then the other great thing ALSO involved Oliver, but this was an interpretive choice within the production rather than the deft handling of a tough situation on the part of the actor. After Oliver comes to tell Ganymede about Orlando's injury, and to pass on the message that Orlando had not forgotten his Rosalind. Rosalind faints, though as Ganymede she tries to pretend she was pretending (yet another layer of acting that I hadn't thought about until right now!). In the scene, there was a sudden shift in the energy of the conversation - Celia invites Oliver to return to their house with them, and Oliver says, "That will I; for I must bear answer back/How you excuse my brother .... Rosalind."

It was such a lovely choice in that scene to not let Oliver simply be pulled into the ruse, but rather to use that moment to see through Ganymede and let her know that he knows. Then that was echoed again, when Ganymede meets Orlando with Oliver, and she calls him "brother" as part of her man-to-man kind of a greeting, and he uses the word "sister" to reinforce that she is - or soon will be - his sister in marriage.

It wasn't a huge detail, but I'd never seen an actor make that choice before and it was such a lovely little piece that deepened Oliver's character and made the scene/s a touch richer.

Yay Oliver!

Oliver and Orlando, about the time that the trap was unable to close in a safe and subtle manner.