As You Like It

The Lord Chamberlain’s Men

Arley Hall, July 17

MORE than 300 people set up their picnics and settled down for an evening of Shakespeare the Elizabethan way at Arley Hall on Wednesday.

The Lord Chamberlain’s Men performed As You Like It, the bard’s comedy of love, banishment and mistaken identity, to enormous applause in the perfect summer setting of Arley’s walled garden.

The first thing to note about the production is its all-male cast, recreating performances in the 16th and 17th centuries when life on the stage was forbidden for women.

Men, wearing beautiful Elizabethan costumes, took on the principal roles of Rosalind, played by Isaac Stanmore, and Celia, played by Christopher Rowland, as well as secondary characters Audrey, played by Nicholas Stafford, and Phoebe, played by Greg Baxter.

This was the aspect of the production I was most intrigued to see.

I had been told that the men did not ‘ham up’ their roles and played these female characters seriously, but I found it hard to believe.

However, the actors’ mannerisms, stance, movements and gestures were perfect.

Performing a comedy, they were not completely serious, but the players made the most of the gender mix-up to add extra layers of fun to the play.

This worked particularly well when Rosalind (played by a man, don’t forget) disguised herself as a man pretending to be a woman to help cure Orlando, who she loves and who loves her, of love.

It is to the actors’ credit that they all remembered who they were supposed to be and what was going on at all, let alone conveyed it to the audience.

The touring company itself is only small, with a cast of just seven men, which meant four of the actors were playing three or four characters each.

But each of these men, Elliot Fitzpatrick, David Fairs, Nicholas Stafford and Greg Baxter, transformed themselves so completely it felt as if the cast was much bigger.

Each character was brought vividly to life through enviable vocal changes and movement.

Highlights for me were the wise fool Touchstone, played to perfection by a capering David Fairs, and the ‘All the world’s a stage’ speech by Jacques, played by Greg Baxter, which has been a favourite of mine since my high school drama days.

Baxter expertly brought out the humour in the speech, referring to members of the audience as his examples of the seven ages of man.

This made the speech instantly relevant, bringing spectators directly into the comedy, and proved just one example of how a 400-year-old play was made completely accessible to a modern audience.

As You Like It was fun and enjoyable and raised many a laugh in an audience keen to see more from The Lord Chamberlain’s Men in future.