If ever there was a Shakespearean work that was summery, breezy and required minimal mental cardio, “As You Like It” is it. The Bard on the Beach team has set this sangria-like romantic comedy to the backdrop of 1960s Vancouver and the Oka-nagan!, amongst its trending wrestling scene and relaxed hippie culture.
The Bard program this year explores extreme ends of Shakespeare’s emotional range. “Macbeth” is the solid 10 with its traditionalist treatment that emphasises the depths of the tragic Scottish play, and “As You Like It” is the easy, breezy, love suckled sigh at 0. To counteract the weight of the more traditional “Macbeth,” the already dulcet “As You Like It” has been paired with a chipper Beatles musical theme, transforming the latter into a flower-powered, low stakes romcom.
“As You Like It” is so simple that it was the first Shakespeare play I read in high school and on my own. It’s got no negative vibes so to speak. There’s a fair amount of cross-dressing, gender-bending, and identity swapping. Ill motives are surface level at best and the concept of romantic love dominates all threads of narrative. It is cloyingly sweet and breathlessly stupid. Some might say, like love itself. The Beatles’ massive catalogue of catchy melodies, quaint messages of love and simplistic structures, lends itself well to the play.
I felt quite conflicted during this production. The music was great, the live band was nothing short of exceptional and all the actors miraculously happened to be talented vocalists. There are 25 songs which although might sound like one too many, do make you forget that you are watching Shakespeare. Which brings me to my next point -the purists do not come to Bard to “tolerate” the Shakespeare. For newcomers, children and hesitant dates, however, this simplicity is much appreciated.
Director Daryl Cloran has done away with major chunks of the play and adapted the remaining portions to fit the 60s West Coast setting extremely cleverly. I would go as far as to say that the Beatles musical theme is so strong that it does not need the skeleton of the frail Shakespearean plot. For me anyway, the plot is never the best thing about a Shakespeare play- it’s the intricacy, innovation and sheer beauty of the poetry, of words placed side by side, of lines arranged above and under, of the playful symmetry in iambic pentameter on iambic pentameter. So when we get less text we get less poetry and less of a mental challenge.
Adaptations, of course, have a special appeal. They open our eyes to the silent background details that do a lot of the heavy lifting of narration. Details like setting (both physical and of time), costumes, dialects, and history. In my Shakespeare Lit class at university, our group thought we were the shit for making Hamlet the frontman of an indie punk band, and having the play in the play be an acerbically emo music video. How clever we were! (Not at all). Turning details on their head suddenly makes them pop. It’s akin to confronting the negatives of a photograph.
Adaptations are fun but just how far can we go with them? Here the Beatles musical theme was so captivating that it almost felt hindered by the limiting and borderline absurd Shakespearean plot.
Speaking of the plot: Orlando dabbles in Vancouver’s wrestling scene and falls in love with Rosalind who quickly gets banished to the woods randomly by her BFF Celia’s dad. Celia and Touchstone follow Rosalind into the woods and for some reason, in the 1960s, Rosalind and Celia have to dress like men to survive. Orlando follows this party of misfits as well. Rosalind offers to coach Orlando on how to woo “the real” Rosalind, all the while being dressed as a man. Then there are the hippies in the forest who sit around thinking out loud, possibly stoned. Somehow all this comes together. There is a romantic quadrilateral, a family reunion, a couple of weddings and a whole lot of cross-dressing.
One thing I would have loved to see more of was the gender-bending. Especially given the free conversations we are currently having as a society about gender, sexuality and trans-sexuality. Would the original confusion work in a contemporary setting given the luxury of gender fluidity we have now? Imagine if “As You Like It” was performed by an entire cast of drag queens and kings! The possibilities are endless and delicious.
The Bard production recreated the nostalgic 60s beautifully through details in costume and set, which came complete with a Volkswagen minivan covered in graphic flowers. I was sent on a treasure hunt of fantasies about what the 60s must have looked like in the sleepy Pacific North West- especially in the Okanagan, which was supposed to have been a haven for free love and living off the grid. I also really loved the diversity in the cast. This was a genuine implementation of inclusivity.
The audience had their favourites as well. Kayvon Khoshkam’s Touchstone was hands down the show stealer with his mod suits, Rod Stewart hair, condescending air and “Hide in the Bushes! Why? Because it’s Shakespeare!” quips. Scott Bellis’ morose Beat philosopher was received well and provided earthy grounding. Rosalind (Lindsey Angell) and Orlando (Nadeem Phillip) played silly lovers well, looked handsome and got the show’s best songs- “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” being the most memorable. Phoebe (Luisa Jojic) and Silius (Ben Elliott) livened things up with their slapstick and Phoebe’s raging lust for Rosalind in drag drew a lot of laughs. The slapstick did go over the top a little bit. In smaller roles, Celia (Harveen Sandhu) as Rosalind’s confidante, and Audrey (Emma Slipp) as Touchstone’s brash love interest impressed strongly as well.
Bard’s “As You Like It” production this year is a lot of fun especially if Shakespeare is not your cup of tea or if you are a Beatles fan (let’s face it, who isn’t?). But if you are a regular Barder you might be a little underwhelmed in which case it’s best to go in with curbed expectations.
This one is more for the Beatles fans than the Shakespeare ones. Barders, take the whole family or an opposites-attract kind of date.
You can get your tickets here!
– Prachi Kamble