Without any trace of a designed set, As You Like It in Sarasota’s Selby Gardens always seems like the Forest of Arden, never Duke Frederick Senior’s court. This works better than the much-doubling and changed casting, amount of editing of the original text, and a rather strange directorial vision of the play’s being about all sorts of magic rather than predominately satire and love. Shakespeare universalized much of what life in Elizabethan England was concerned with. He satirized pastoral drama, poetry, and ideals. He condemned usurpation of power, unjust politics, sham, overlooking the history of present problems, purely sentimental views of love (though he liked true love and valued friendship). You wouldn’t know all this—except for the satirizing of pastoral—from the FSU/Asolo Conservatory presentation of As You Like It. Confusion often comes from casting. The originally cast Rosalind, heroine of the play, fell ill and has been replaced efficiently and likably by a first year student, Bonita Jackson. But her prose often is in African-American cadence and, because she’s the only black person in the cast and thus in court and forrest, it’s hard to believe she isn’t recognized when she flees to Arden disguised as the page Gannymede, even though her gestures are great.
I could not figure out who a woman at court with a tall feather hat and imposing gown was. She turned out to be Alex Pelletier playing LeBeau, with a character name utterly masculine! Pelletier also plays the hero Adam’s faithful old servant, in style rather Chaplinesque. She fares infinitely better later as the country wench Audrey, on whom Touchstone has set his fool’s cap for sex (and will have to settle for marriage). Brian Ritchie is admirably consistent throughout as what his name Touchstone implies and is able to protect Rosalind and her friend Celia from possible assault, although he later constantly pokes himself under Audrey’s skirt. Michael Judah is strong in displaying Orlando’s indignation over his treatment at court, his sincerely romantic love of Rosalind, his care for Adam—in fact, he’s got real personality and presence. He doesn’t fight with his brother Oliver’s wrestler Charles but his replacement with two of his servants. Joe Ferrarelli is never very scary as Oliver and thus an okay spouse later for Celia. He also makes a very young realistic shepherd Corin, yet maintains contrasts with sexy Touchstone and silly shepherd Silvius. Jillian Cicalese comes on with a strong power of friendship as Celia and then is just sort of around to hear from Rosalind in Arden. An addition in this production is Celia’s dreaming some of the action. It’s done mainly in a dance, as if the idea were based on that use in Carousel. Jillian seems to actually like the guy Celia has to eventually marry on the spot, as it were. Marc Bitler is adequate as Charles but actually manages to win sympathy as Silvius, the satirized sort-of-shepherd crazily in love with Phoebe. Of course, she is mean, as portrayed by Carla Corvo. Shakespeare’s Phoebe is homely and actually lower than Silvius, but Carla Corvo is so pretty that it’s hard to feel her rejection by Gannymede is not a bit harshly accomplished. Jonathan Grunert doubles as both Dukes. Though he is terribly harsh as Duke Frederich the usurper, he isn’t all that welcoming to Arden when he becomes Duke Senior. He grows into that role, in which he wears a curious animal tail on his belt. (Maybe that substitutes for a lack of both the parade of a dead deer into Arden for food and its being accompanied by one of Shakespeare’s songs.) Creg Sclavi may have the most difficult assignment: being Charles, the shepherd Willem, and one of the central figures, Jacques. Perhaps because of the need to rapidly change or simulate change of costume, when Willem is giving up his claim on Audrey, one wonders what Jacques had to do with her. In the last scene, whether it is Willem or Jacques playing the guitar isn’t immediately clear. Suffice it to say, though, that Creg is a good Jacques though a diminished emphasis has him as a forgettable melancholic. His “All the world’s a stage” speech is scattered as he’s shoved around a group of forest men, who then form a triangle rather than a real circle around him. I am not sure what principle costuming followed. For instance, some of the gowns appear to be of different periods or styles in the same period. The Arden wear is fanciful. Chris McVicker’s Lights System couldn’t be better. I missed most of Shakespeare’s songs, Hymen’s appearance and the right period dance, and even Rosalind’s Epilogue.
