As You Like It

I got tickets to see As You Like It at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre.  I had no idea what to expect from the space, and it surprised me in every day.  The theatre was the 2nd floor of a restaurant and bar.  The tiny place made a large room at the top of a narrow staircase, and turned it into a black box.  I heard that the theatre's only been around for about a year, but I think it was a brilliant idea.  Maybe one day I can do something like that... although they had some problems, like where to store everyone before the show.  The seating was poor, since neither the audience nor the stage were angled.  Short people to the front!  Neither was the theatre handicapped accessible, which I think is a definite shortcoming.

The play was a bit darker than I'd considered it before.  The usurping Duke's violence toward Oliver was surprising, and made him a villain from the start.  I wasn't impressed by the performances of the actors playing Oliver and Adam (especially the fake "old" voice Adam used), although Oliver had a fairly good command of the language.  Orlando was more masculine than other Orlandos I'd seen, and his victory in wrestling Charles was quite believable.

I liked Touchstone's command of language, but I didn't like how crude he made his character in the second half of the play.  Jacques was curious and energetic, and while I'm not sure this choice was supported by the text, it was certainly interesting to watch.  I'd want to read more about melancholic behaviour before I disagree with his acting choice, however.  It worked.

I liked that they had the folks in the forest shivering, but they abandoned this behaviour after the first scene.  Consistency!  They also didn't have any cross-gender casting or audience contact.  :-(

For intermission, they sent us out of the theatre.  Me, being the rebel, perched on the steps, but most everyone went all the way downstairs for the full fifteen minutes of the interview.  During this time, the props department littered the stairwell with poetry, which I thought was a nice touch.

I liked this production, mostly.  I didn't knock my socks off, but it was creative for a small space and I liked that the actors were exploring possibilities in the text.