'As You Like It' gets lost in the dramatic woods

Shakespeare's As You Like It is a play populated by lovers and fools who owe their wisdom to their very foolishness. In a production going up this weekend in the Silliman Dramatic Attic, directed by Nicholas Bagley, ES '00, the story of Rosalind and Orlando unfolds before our eyes as we join the actors in a world where fortune is always changing and one never knows what lies beyond the next tree.

The audience entering the theater discovers a forest scattered with leaves, a lovely use of the attic's difficult layout. As the play begins, the lighting casts a warm glow on the stage, and we enter the court of Duke Frederick. Fredrick, we learn, has banished his brother, Duke Senior, from the court, and the banished Duke and his men have sought refuge in the forest of Arden. Rosalind, the lovely daughter of the banished Duke, remains in court, a companion to her cousin Celia. Their friendship is marred only by Rosalind's sadness over the absence of her father. Orlando, a young man living under the abusive care of his older brother Oliver, also resides in the kingdom, and bemoans his situation at the play's opening.

Vanessa Wolf, BR '01, as Rosalind, and Adam O'Byrne, TC '01, as Orlando, are a joy to watch. The chemistry between the two is tangible and heartfelt. Wolf gives us a Rosalind who is equally engaging as a young woman of the court and in the guise of a young man, and O'Byrne gives us in Orlando the earnestly awkward yet charming young man who captures our hearts as well as Rosalind's. Aside from these two characters, actor Tom Woodrow, ES '00, steals the show. Playing three small characters, including Adam, the loyal manservant to Orlando, Woodrow commands our full attention with each word and gesture, and his physical presence on stage gives life and energy to every scene in which he appears. The comic characters of Phebe and Silvius, played by Lisa Limor Rabie, BK '01, and David Gavin Steib, are amusing and engaging; Rabie especially shines as the shrewish manipulator of the lovesick Silvius. Vikram Somaya, CC '98, playing Touchstone with the same hilarity with which he graced last semester's Taming of The Shrew, also deserves commendation.

Unfortunately, Bagley and his actors have made some strange choices concerning some of the other characters, which gives the production a fragmented feeling. Celia, played by Meredith Summerville, ES '01, is flippant and quick-spoken, and it is difficult to reconcile her shallow character with her friendship with the wise and thoughtful Rosalind. The Duke Senior, played by Andrew Stigler, GRD '02, is not the regal figure one would expect as the father of Rosalind, but a somewhat foolish leader who plays golf among the leaves strewn across the stage. But the most disarming choice made by the production is in the portrayal of Jaques, played by Dan Larlham, SM '00. Jaques, usually portrayed as a sad and sardonic yet strangely sympathetic man, is here a bitter and caustic poet, ungrateful to the Duke Senior, cruel and unkind to the young Orlando, and in no way engaging as a character. Larlham, who as an actor is consistently excellent, is out of place here, and at times appears uncomfortable with the role; as a result, his Jaques is an unfortunate disappointment.

The production often appear to lack direction, especially with regard to the costumes and the scenery. Bagley sets the play in modern times, where paparazzi follow Duke Fredrick around with a camera and a notebook, Touchstone looks like he has strayed too deeply into the bargain rack of a used clothing store in the Village, Jaques becomes a beat poet complete with dark sunglasses and a goatee, and Fredrick's court is a cheesy lounge complete with red velour wall covering and a black and white checkered floor. There appears to be no rhyme or reason to these choices, giving us little sense of the director's vision. The director's notes do nothing to clarify, and we are left struggling for answers, wandering among the trees of the forest very much like the actors themselves.

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players," claims Jaques, the play's melancholy philosopher. But in Bagley's production, this line has negative implications. The play itself is a lovely piece of dramatic literature, full of wisdom, trickery, disguises, fools, and love all around, and there are enough strong performances in the production to make it worth the viewing. But as a whole, the actors seem somewhat lost, stumbling through the play, wanderers in the forest of Arden where lovers are gained, hearts are won and fortunes are made. They are therefore "merely" players, lacking the unification necessary to effectively narrate their tale.

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