REVIEW: Colin MacLean Loves As You Like It, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!
At first it seems rather absurd: a mashup of Shakespeare and the Beatles. But let’s look at this: Shakespeare is the English language’s greatest dramatist, and the Beatles is the most popular band in music history. The two share a romantic sensibility. Upon closer examination the free-spirited music of the Beatles begins in the exuberance of youth – songs like Love Me Do and Twist and Shout – and moves through an arc to more mature themes and the philosophically invested music of their later years.
And that pretty well sums up the dramatic arc of Shakespeare’s light-as-a-Summer’s-eve play As You Like It – on stage at the Citadel Theatre until March 15 (with future productions booked for Winnipeg, whose Royal Manitoba Theatre is a partner, along with Milwaukee and Chicago).
The similarities impressed Citadel Artistic Director Daryl Cloran enough to inspire him to marry the two into a single entity and present it in Vancouver’s Bard on the Beach festival a couple of years back. The show immediately became a huge hit, busting out of the pejorative jukebox musical label and selling out the huge 729-seat theatre for the whole summer.
Come early. Set in Swingin’ Vancouver of the 1960s, this delightful show begins with a wrestling match. This is not some dainty Bardic roundelay but a down-and-dirty recreation of Big Time Wrestling, featuring some pretty ferocious body slams and leg locks (courtesy of fight director Jonathan Hawley Purvis). In the ring: Charles “Two Gun” Lubowitz (Austin Eckert) takes on all comers – most notably Orlando (Jeff Irving – attacking the role with great verve), the hunky, love-struck hero.
The musical then slides easily into Shakespeare’s tale of love, rebellion and flower power that takes place in the court and surrounding countryside. In the court, we find Rosalind (a spirited Lindsey Angell) and her righteous cousin Celia (Jameela McNeil). Celia musically observes He Loves You and Orlando advances his suit with Rosalind crooning, I Want to Hold Your Hand.
All will shortly be banished to the Forests of Arden – known here has “the Wild Okanagan” – where they meet a hippie commune, complete with a multi-hued psychedelic VW van, set up by some already banished members of the court. The smitten Orlando will try to woo Rosalind, but by now she is dressed as a man (don’t ask!). This provides a good opportunity for the twitterpated goof and his equally confused old servant Adam (Robb Paterson) to sing Help! Later a local lass Phoebe (Emily Dallas) also falls for the (now male) Rosalind – but noting a strange bi-sexual bent to Rosalind’s disguise sings Something in the Way (He) Moves. Love blossoms in the halcyon glades of the Okanagan as Phoebe is tricked into falling for a local shepherd Silvius (Farren Timoteo). Timoteo hilariously displays his impressive comic abilities and peppy rubber-limbed dance moves.
Another banished royal Duke Senior (Paul Essliembre) warns of panic to follow with Let It Be. And what would a back-to-the-land movement be without a resident hippie philosopher? The position is filled by Jaques (Sarah Constible), the Fool on the Hill, who gets to rather skilfully declaim one of Shakespeare’s great speeches, “All the world’s a stage.” She also delivers I Am the Walrus in a delightfully wonky off-centre reading.
The play was written by Shakespeare as an entertainment and not to be taken seriously. Cloran’s frisky characters collide somewhere between the Shakespearean tropes of gender swapping, lusty yokel coupling, unrequited love and the layers of modern slapstick that adapter-director Cloran (and choreographer Purvis) cheerfully layer on. The court jester and family grunt Touchstone is played by Kayvon Khoshkam in a star turn, complete with outrageous Elton John outfits. He exhibits a royal disdain for B.C.’s bucolic blandishments. He seems obsessed with “the copulation of sheep,” and the virulent local bees zero on him.
The 20 Beatles tunes fit well Shakespeare’s words. Much of the text had to be chopped back to make way for the music but it’s hard to imagine how anybody but the most draconian of purists will take any exception to the result.
The entire cast shows a remarkable facility in acting, singing and dancing as much as they are at home declaiming blank verse. Music Director Ben Elliott is solid – there is a basic fab trio that supplies the backup, and many actors display considerable chops playing myriad instruments. Costume designer Carmen Alatorre’s colourful threads enhancing Cloran’s vision are outta sight ’60s twichen’. Gerald King’s lighting design is a plus as are the functional and nifty sets by Pam Johnson.
Peace, love and understanding has never been quite so much fun. Somewhere, the Bard is smiling.
Photos by Ian Jackson
