As You Like It at the Open Air Theatre

The Open Air Theatre’s production of As You Like It took a modern perspective on the classic Shakespearean comedy, emphasized the environmental aspects of both the play and the setting of the theatre, and was also absolute crap.

To begin with, the set design was literal garbage, supposedly as part of some contemporary update in which Orlando picks garbage for his family’s business???? Or just as a relegated job forced on him by his brother???? These questions are left unanswered because this plot line is relevant for the first scene and then never brought up again, except for the faint memory of it from the scraps of garbage lingering around the stage and floating in the water that aren’t picked up until act three. Much of the changes to the play in this interpretation are awkwardly and carelessly pulled together as if a nearby high school staged everything for them rather than professionals of the theatre. 
The period is brought into what appears to be current from the business casual dress adorning Celia and Rosalind in the first act, and the boyish street clothes worn by Rosalind and Orlando later. The script, however, isn’t changed to match anything, so while Celia’s father seems to be dressed for a corporate meeting, he is still a duke ruling over his court, and able to freely act as tyrannical as pleases him. There is nothing added to the dialogue to explain the mysterious garbage in the first scene, and those living in the Forest of Arden are dressed as if they’re all camping together somewhere perhaps in Montana or Utah, but still say things like “the forest of Arden.” As if these inconsistencies weren’t muddled enough, they do decide to add to the dialogue in completely meaningless and unrelated ways such as adding bits of music from currently famous artists like Beyoncé, or even stooping so low as to dab for attention.

Rather than critically read and understand the play, this production opted instead to distract the audience from its ineptitude with special rain and snow effects that once again added nothing to their message. Aside from the random introductory segment at the beginning when voices out of the speaker read headlines about environmental crises, this thread is yet another loose tangent yearning to be cut loose.

The main tragedy in this dull production is the utter lack of a sense of humor. Shakespeare was always for the plebes, the commoners, the sinners, his comedies were meant to be taken lightheartedly, with a sense of ridiculous silliness in the air. The actors in this production read their lines as if they made a mistake getting ready and wandered into a drama rather than a comedy. Duke Frederick was scarier than he was funny, and Orlando was more a fool than a fool for love, and Rosalind was less the deceptive puppet master that she is in the script and in other stage interpretations. 
Part of these character problems stem from this production’s odd obsession with keeping rigid gender roles in place in a play that is possibly the most queer of Shakespeare’s entire catalogue. There was absolutely zero gender bending happening in a play whose main character is a woman dressed as a man pretending to be a woman played by a man. Taking the gender and sexual ambiguity out of the play completely zaps it of half of its humour. Every time a "funny" line was spoken the only sound piercing the silence in the audience was the fake laughter of the cast members on stage. The biggest reaction, in fact, from the audience throughout the entire show was when Touchstone takes off his shirt during a scene with Audrey. The comedy of the play is so lost, and butchered when its present, that it’s almost more plausible to believe someone purposefully directed the show into a gutter for some conspiratorial reason than the more likely answer that they simply missed the mark entirely understanding this play.  

Perhaps instead of attempting a “modern” update of As You Like It, this theatre company should have instead taken a closer look at the original playing of the show because there were not many actual modern updates in this version at all except for a celebration of the fact that after 400 years we, as a society, have figured out special effects rain.