310 Blog Post: As You Like It

310 Blog Post: As you Like It

“As You Like It” is one of my favorite plays by Shakespeare so I was really excited to be part of the audience within the Globe theatre watching this 2018 production of the play. I had many expectations of the play and expected a lot from the stage interpretation as I really enjoy the original script of the play. It was really interesting the choice of cast that was picked for the play and the character which I found the most interesting was Celia, played by Nadia Nadarajah a deaf actress. It was super interesting to see this choice of casting because I see Celia as a vocally present character within the play, who is not afraid or hesitant to say anything she wants to anyone. In this sense, the actress, Nadia Nadarajah was able to continually express herself with very animated movements and with aide from other characters like Rosalind (Jack Laskey) and Touchstone (Colin Hurley) she was able to keep her characters brashness alive in stage.

Since Celia is a deaf character it emphasizes the relationship that she shares with Rosalind, since Rosalind seems to be the only one that “listens” (pays attention) to what she has to say through BSL (British Sign Language). This bond that Celia has with Rosalind seems stronger and in a sense more reasonable that Celia must rely so much on Rosalind because she is a confidant as well as her voice within certain situations. This aspect of reliance and need makes more sense than it does within the written play because of how Celia is able to completely abandon her father and court life which was fascinating to see. Another interesting relationship that is noticeably different regarding Celia being a deaf character, is the relationship portrayed between Celia and her father, Duke Frederick (Helen Schlesinger). The scene particularly interesting between the father and daughter due is when Duke Frederick is kicking Rosalind out and Celia defends Rosalind. This scene was more heartbreaking and intense within the live theatre than in the written play, due to the emotional actions displayed by the three characters on stage. This scene between a father and daughter is sad within the written work because she seems to distress over her father’s unfair treatment and defies her father and rejects him for her cousin, but there seems to be no real focus on Celia’s fallout with her father and is easily accepted. While within the live play this scene was evidently more traumatizing and depressing because the Duke’s orders surprise both female characters and they both begin to beg and plead with the Duke and Celia begins to sign frantically and hang onto the Duke in obvious desperation, creating a very emotional scene where the Duke does not seem to notice the distress that he caused and is affecting his daughter.

The play was lovely and Nadia Nadarajah did an amazing job as Celia, but still I feel that Celia’s character was lacking a bit when she was on stage. The audience was drawn to her, but mainly trying to see what she was signing or expressing and if you had not already seen or read the play you could be lost, even with the added assistance from other characters, like Rosalind. The scene that comes to mind is the scene where Oliver (Shubham Saraf) and Celia meet for the first time. This scene is supposed to be a “love at first sight” and seems to be pretty obvious within the written work as well as other versions of the play, but within this play that outcome seems to be a surprise. Within the live play version, Celia interrupts Ganymede (Rosalind) from giving Oliver directions in order to gain Oliver’s attention, but this is lost due to the lack of lines and connection between the actors. Again, if one had not already known their future outcome within the play this mini interaction would have been missed, through the lack of vocal interaction between Oliver and Celia, who leave Rosalind out of the conversation. A lot of Celia’s presence and character was left out and many of her lines and interactions became limited and less important due to the added necessity to constantly pay attention to action rather than lines.