As You Like It

This show has now closed, click here for a listing of current and future London shows

Comedy Opened 7 March 2006, Closed 25 March 2006

Novello Theatre The Aldwych, London

The Royal Shakespeare Company present William Shakespeare's comedy As You Like It directed by RSC Associate Director Dominic Cooke.

In the Forest of Arden boundaries between reality and fantasy merge in Shakespeare's vibrant comedy of life and love.

"Toothless rustics, blood-smeared hunters, sheep excrement: this Forest of Arden is unpasteuried. Dominic Cooke's production of Shakespeare's melancholy comedy creates an unruly rural idyll where the seasons change from snow to sun and Meg Fraser's Audrey is more foot and mouth than peaches and cream. This rough, functional forest is a perfect match for Lia William's tough, touching Rosalind... But there are times here when the pace slows to an unfortunate crawl. Still, there are emotional highs and entertaining lows, creating an Arden of deep roots and green shoots." The Sunday Times

"Under an enormous freenwood tree, which dominates the stage, the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of As You Like It is spread like a delicious, generous picnic... It's a fairy tale with gentle gender-bending, and every sexual boundary is probed here under Dominic Cooke's direction... This is wonderful ensemble acting, but if anyone steals the show it is Amanda Harris as Celia. Paul Chahidi has the audience eating out of his hand as Touchstone, and there's a fantastic cameo from Meg Fraser as Audrey inan Ena Sharples hairnet... An intelligent, enchanting production where each of Shakespeare's words is sifted for its gold." The Sunday Telegraph