Review by Norah Vawter

The cast of *As You Like It*. Teressa Castracone Photography.

Watching the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s new production of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, I kept leaning forward in my seat, grinning, as the Bard’s poetry, along with the fun 1960s setting and frequent Beatles songs woven into the narrative, washed over me. It’s easy to see why the run has already been extended to January 7. The production is an escape, but it’s also surprisingly relevant to our daily lives, as it explores themes of transformation, disguise, lies and manipulation, gender roles, and hints of a critical awareness of patriarchy, social class systems, and the status quo. All while treating us to lush musical numbers and characters expressing their deepest longings and most intense emotions through song and dance.

Our heroes and young lovers, Rosalind (Chelsea Rose) and Orlando (Jeff Irving), are nobles who meet and fall in love immediately, before being separated. The court they’ve grown up in is dominated by fighting—in this production, a pro-wrestling ring is central to the stage, plot, and overall vibe at court. When Rosalind’s aunt, Dame Frances (Jennifer Lines), the local political leader, and Orlando’s older brother Oliver (Matthew MacDonald-Bain) threaten each young hero’s future, each flees separately to the forest of Ardon. Rosalind travels with her cousin Celia (Naomi Ngebulana), but the young women fear becoming victims of violence. Celia takes on an assumed name and disguised clothing. Rosalind dives into a more extreme disguise as she swaps genders—posing as a youth named Ganymede. Of course, the disguise fools everyone, including Orlando, and much mischief, misdirection, and meddling ensues. Though she hopes to reunite with her estranged mother, who was banished to this forest, the gender swap prevents a swift reunion.

Jeff Irving, Naomi Ngebulana, and Chelsea Rose in *As You Like It*. Teressa Castracone Photography.

As our cast descends into Ardon Forest, the city’s scenery is swapped out for trees, flowers, and a brightly painted flowered bus. It’s clever and subtle staging: no scene break, and the forest emerges around the travelers as if the landscape springs up for their adventure. The set feels magical in its creation but not distracting. Hippies emerge, led by Rosalind’s mother, the banished Dame Senior (also Lines). While the city feels like it exists in the buttoned-up, more conservative early ‘60s, the forest brings us to the free love and individual exploration of the late ‘60s. Authoritarianism is also replaced by a free-wheeling, liberated utopia. Cleverly, both Dames are portrayed by the same actress, showing these powerful but also vulnerable women to be two sides of a coin.

The show on stage, while faithful to the original text, is also a new, distinct piece of theatre with a significant portion of content not written by the Elizabethan playwright but by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Though the modern lines are sung, they nonetheless contribute new poetry to the production and our perception of the story. This Beatles-infused adaptation of As You Like It debuted in Vancouver and had its U.S. premiere in Chicago. Much of the original cast and crew continue in their roles in the D.C. production. Conceived by Daryl Cloran and Bard on the Beach, it weaves a whopping 23 Beatles songs into Shakespeare’s original text. I’d expected the Fab Four’s tunes to be limited to a few numbers throughout, providing atmosphere. But this is a bonafide musical. The flamboyant spectacle is both very Shakespeare and very much its own thing. Cloran ably helms the D.C. show, serving again as director.

As much as I found myself enjoying the extravagant, fresh renditions of familiar Beatles’ songs, I initially found the musical interruptions distracting. The Beatles are one of my favorite bands, and I genuinely believe their lyrics are poetry, and important. Regardless, I worried that the play could get lost between the song and dance. But soon the show’s form won me over, as I began to see how the lyrics integrated themselves so seamlessly they became absolutely necessary. Here, in this version of the play, speech is not enough.

The talented cast speaks Elizabethan lines like modern English, performs musical numbers effortlessly, and works together as a true ensemble, creating a show that feels unified rather than gimmicky. Among this impressive cast, the absolute standout is Chelsea Rose as Rosalind. After adopting a man’s suit, Rose transforms her manner, adopting a swagger and command but maintaining girlish vulnerability. This is not simply a physical transformation, but an intellectual transformation, and gives the actress the opportunity to show her range and use her performance to explore the complexities of gender and expectations for women versus men. I wasn’t as intrigued by Irving’s Orlando. He’s a more than competent actor—and an extraordinary musical performer. But he doesn’t shine. (To be fair, his character is not as interesting. This is a girl-powered play.)

Other standout performances include the aforementioned Lines as both Dames and Kayvon Khoshkam as the fool Touchstone. Even more special and impressive: Andrew Cownden grumbles but shines as the glum intellectual Jaques who delivers many great lines, including the famous “All the World’s a Stage'' monologue.

Much credit for this seamless, ambitious production goes to the music direction of Ben Elliot, aided by choreography, sound, and lighting design from Jonathan Hawley Purvis, Alistaire Wallace, and Gerald King, respectively. They beautifully integrate the Bard and Beatles. Carmen Alatorre’s costuming is flamboyant without being overly silly. Purvis, also the fight director, and fight captain Matthew Ip Shaw, deliver amazing pro-wrestling matches that draw us in (beginning with a brilliant pre-show extravaganza). Pam Johnson’s set design is spare in the city and lush in the forest, distinguishing the settings without needless detail.

One detractor from the overall show—and the fault lies as much with the playwright as the adapters—is that the plot gets lost soon after we enter the forest. Halfway through, I’d almost forgotten that Rosalind and Orlando were running from something, not just to something. This play is in love with its words and with scenes that allow characters to evolve and discover themselves and their world. While the Bard seems to have made a conscious choice not to center the plot, the spectacle of the Beatles music (and the fact that so much content is not written by the original playwright) is another factor in creating a disordered feel.

Nevertheless, this production takes a play that’s critical of patriarchy, classism, and authoritarianism and makes it more relevant to social justice issues. Shakespeare might seem on the surface to be apolitical, especially when writing comedies, but the Elizabethan playwright was a shrewd observer of the social systems of his time, often critical of the status quo and injustice, and while I see value in calling out his missteps (Merchant of Venice and Taming of the Shrew, I’m looking at you), I also believe that his plays endure because he was often ahead of his time, particularly when writing women. Even the comedies provide important commentary, and As You Like It joins other works like Much Ado About Nothing in encouraging theatre-goers to think about things like systemic patriarchy.

One notable aspect that detracts from modern relevance of this show is the cast's lack of significant racial and ethnic diversity. On the other hand, the treatment of gender is impressive. Shakespeare’s text gives us aging brothers, not sisters, ruling society: Duke Frances and the banished Duke Senior. In this adaptation we meet instead Dame Frances and Dame Senior, and I think it’s fascinating to see a Shakespeare play where the most important leaders are women. Along with the nuanced performances of Lines and Rose and a thoroughly modern approach to the text–this gender swap at the top creates an unabashedly feminist show.

We could view As You Like It as a beautiful escape from the real world. But looking further, this play of merriment feels necessary, and not just because it makes us think. Now more than ever, we need dancing, fools, and lovers. In the long winter of 2023, Shakespeare’s 1599 comedy reminds me why we’re being serious at other times. What we’re fighting for. And why we should all dance more often.

No matter the year, can there be anything more radical or subversive than hope, love, and optimism?

As You Like It is running through January 7, 2024 at The Shakespeare Theatre’s Harman Hall—610 F Street NW, Washington, DC 20004. For tickets, call the box office at (202) 547-1122 or purchase them online. Runtime is 2 hours 40 minutes with an intermission. All STC spaces are “mask friendly,” meaning that all patrons, masked and unmasked, are welcome.

Norah Vawter is DCTRENDING’s local authors editor, a freelance writer/editor, and a novelist. She is represented by Victress Literary and has an M.F.A. in creative writing from George Mason University. She lives with her family in Northern Virginia. Follow Norah on Twitter @norahvawter, where she shares words and works of D.C. area writers every Friday.

A Beatles-infused, Feminist, Joyful ‘As You Like It’