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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b style><span style="color:windowtext"><br></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:rgb(0,255,255)"><b style><br></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:rgb(0,255,255)"><b style>••••••••••••••••••••</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b style><span style="color:windowtext"><br>
</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b style><span style="color:windowtext">“As
You Like It” comedic farce delights at Great Lakes Theater</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">Roy Berko</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:windowtext">(Member, American Theatre
Critics Association and Cleveland Critics Circle)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:windowtext"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">What do the phrases, “all the world’s a stage” and
“too much of a good thing” have in common?<span style> </span>They are both quotes from Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy “As
You Like It.”<span style> </span>As is true of that
genre, the play, which was written early in 1600, deals with shepherds and the
rustic life, but, also concerns love, in its various forms.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">“As You Like It” is<span style> </span>one of the Bard’s most famous works and, as presented at
Great Lakes Theater, one that delights an audience.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">The plot seems complicated, but, as is true of many of
Shakespeare’s works of exile and romance, which are meant to entertain, there
is a great deal of farcical slapstick, overly wrought lovers who find bliss by
the time the final curtain falls, and what seems confusing is, in fact,
simplistic.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">The plot:<span style>
</span>Frederick has taken over and exiled his older brother, Duke Senior.<span style> </span>The Duke’s daughter, Rosalind, has been
allowed to stay in the castle to be a companion to her cousin Celia.<span style> </span>In a parallel plot, Orlando, whose
wealthy father has died, is denied his part of his father’s estate by his older
brother.<span style> </span>The stories join when
Rosalind and Orlando fall in love, but their connection is broken when the Duke
has a change of heart and exiles Rosalind.<span style> </span>Celia and Rosalind steal away to the forest where Duke
Senior is ensconced with a group of his followers.<span style> </span>Rosalind, is dressed as a male, a common Shakespearean
theatrical device of hidden identities.<span style> </span>Add a jester, a couple of sheppards, some chance
encounters, some twists and turns, lots of farcical shticks, more music than is
normal for Shakespearean play, and a happy ending.<span style> </span>Of course, to quote the Bard, “All’s well that ends well.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">Great Lakes Theater’s production, under the
direction of Edward Morgan, is entertaining, but doesn’t seem to fulfill Morgan’s
director’s notes.<span style> </span>He has
reinvented the play, he contends, by changing its setting to America, which he
feels, “gives the text new resonance.”<span style>
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">Morgan writes that the play starts in New England,
in the midst of the second Industrial Revolution, not long after the start of
the 20<sup>th</sup> century.<span style> </span>“The
Forest of Arden is in the foothills of the Adirondack mountains.<span style> </span>The villains are greedy, thriving
Industrialists.”<span style> </span>“Rosalind and
Orlando are the new Americans.”<span style>
</span>“Rosalind becomes a kind of metaphor for American womanhood.”<span style> </span>The Elizabethan songs have been
replaced “with tunes that echo these themes through Yankee sentiment and
syncopation.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">Though he philosophizes those goals, starting the
play with a metal grinding scene, does not an industrial revolution make.<span style> </span>How are we to know that is his
intent?<span style> </span>None of the language of
Shakespeare’s script carries the “industrial revolution” message nor any
implication of the villains as “greedy Industrialists.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">The music insertions, though many create the right
mood, do not all fit the time period described.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext"><span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">Rosalind, rather than being a metaphor for the
liberated woman, follows the historical, tried and true path of putting a man
(Orlando) above all else and gets her desire, not a career, but a marriage.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">If Morgan wanted to really reimagine the play he
needed to add dialogue that makes his message clear.<span style> </span>He would not have been the first to add to, or delete the
Bard’s words.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">All theorizing aside, the production delights.<span style> </span>Martin Céspedes’s choreography, which
is evident throughout, is creative and brought applause from the audience.<span style> </span>Especially endearing is the soft-shoe
tap dance of Touchstone (Dustin Tucker), the court fool.<span style> </span>Also creative is the dance at the end
of the play in which Céspedes has developed character identifying moves for
each couple.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">The pacing, the visual images, the Borsht-belt shticks,
and the performances are all top notch.<span style>
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">The petite and talented Betsy Mugavero, makes for a
radiant Rosalind.<span style> </span>Though she
doesn’t really look like the “man” she is supposed to play during her
“disguised” segments, she is right for the Shakespeare habit of sex
switching.<span style> </span>(Interestingly, during
the Bard’s time the task was easy, as young boys played the female roles.) </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">Handsome and gym-toned Torsten Johnson is a
physically strong, yet gentle Orlando.<span style>
</span>Johnson and Mugavero have a wonderful interpersonal chemistry that makes
their love-in-bloom scenes engaging.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">Dustin Tucker, who has a remarkable resemblance to
old vaudeville performer Red Buttons, delights as the Court Fool.<span style> </span>He does slapstick exceedingly well.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">The rest of the cast develops appropriate
characterizations.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">Russell Metheny’s set designs and Rick Martin’s
lighting help in developing the story.<span style>
</span>Kim Krumm Sorenson’s costumes often confuse.<span style> </span>They don’t always develop the era depicted.<span style> </span>Her backwoods inhabitant’s costumes,
however, are character right.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><i style><span style="color:windowtext">Capsule judgement: Great
Lakes Theater’s “As You Like It,” though it doesn’t </span></i><span style="color:windowtext"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><i style><span style="color:windowtext">fully develop director
Edward Morgan’s philosophical objectives, is delightful.<span style> </span>The many students who will attend
should go away with a very positive concept of the Shakespearean comedy at its
best. </span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><i style><span style="color:windowtext"> </span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:windowtext">“As
You Like It” runs from April 9-14, 2014 at the Hanna Theatre.<span style> </span>For tickets go to: </span><span style>216-664-6064 or </span><a href="http://www.greatlakestheater.org/"><span style="color:windowtext">www.greatlakestheater.org</span></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:rgb(0,255,255)"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="color:rgb(0,255,255)">••••••••••••••••••••••••••</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none">
<br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><br><a href="http://www.greatlakestheater.org/"><span style="color:windowtext"></span></a><span style="color:windowtext"></span></p>
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