AS YOU LIKE IT – REVIEW OF 2025 STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

With pomp and circumstance, the Stratford Festival officially opened its 2025 season with a production of As You Like It, one of Shakespeare’s most familiar and delightful comedies. Director Chris Abraham puts his own stamp on the production by concentrating on the dark side of the play in the first half and on the comic and romantic side in the last part.

When the play opens, we see three skids laden with a large number of sacks piled on them. Some men in overalls start placing some of the sacks on an empty skid and one of them grabs a sack and runs off. An armed guard pursues him, and we hear a gun shot. We will see men in army fatigues armed with rifles on the stage and in the aisles. They look menacing and they are present in the forest as well as at court in the city.

As You Like It has a violent underpinning that we may forget by the time the performance is finished. Abraham wants us to keep that in mind. The Duke (Sean Arbuckle) has usurped the dukedom from, in this production, his sister the Duchess (Seana McKenna). He is a nasty dictator and exiles his niece Rosalind (Sara Farb) who escapes to the forest with his daughter Celia (Makambe K. Simamba) where the Duchess and some faithful followers have taken refuge.

But the forest is not a safe place and there are armed guards everywhere. There are some interesting characters like Touchstone (Steve Ross), Jaques (Evan Mercer) but the atmosphere is grim and foreboding. Rosalind and Celia disguised as Ganymede and Aliena fall in with some shepherds. It snows all the time, and this is a long way from a comedy of love in the haven of the forest. Jaques delivers the famous “All the world's a stage” speech rather monotonously. This is not the happy commune in the Forest of Arden that we may have imagined.

All of this changes in the second half. The sun is shining, flowers are sprouting and love and comedy are in the air. The rifles all but disappear and we anticipate the transformation of people from evil to good, the blossoming of love into marriage and repentance and reconciliation.

Opening scene of As You Like It at Stratford. Photo: David Hou

As the lovers or would-be lovers begin the romantic pursuits, we put the ugly atmosphere behind us and watch the good Orlando court the disguised Rosalind as proxy love. We have the hilarious shepherds Corin (Hiro Kanagawa), Silvius (Michael Man) and William (Leon Qin). Touchstone pursues the maybe raunchy Audrey (Silvae Marcedes) who dumps William, Phoebe pursues Ganymede while Silvius pines for her. In the end there are four marriages to bring the comedy to a celebratory conclusion.

Abraham wants to remind us that there are wars in Ukraine, Gaza and elsewhere and the comic possibilities of the first part of the play are minimized. The modern costumes do not provide for a clown or broad comedy until the end. It is as if we are watching two different plays.

There are guns everywhere but in one scene there is an arrow present. Abraham does not shy away from some bawdy humor such a grab for one’s genitals but all of that is in the second, romantic pursuits part.

The set and costume design by Julie Fox show the skids of sacks in the first scene and high fences in the second scene. The exiles in the first have a fire going and a few props. In the later scenes there are flowers around the stage and the sun is shining.

Farb and Simamba are energetic and loveable as the exiled cousins who would teach Allen’s Orlando how to woo by proxy. Ross as Touchstone provides some broad comedy in his wooing of Audrey and all the lovers are entertaining. Arbuckle is dictatorial until he repents, and McKenna is a humane duchess. Fine performances by both. The large cast performed well and credit goes to Abraham for his fascinating and disciplined production.
_______________
As You Like It by William Shakespeare continues until October 30, 2025 at the Festival Theatre; Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca 

JAMES KARAS IS THE SENIOR EDITOR, CULTURE, OF THE GREEK PRESS