Joe Morrow as Touchstone in Northern Broadsides' tour of As You Like It. Photo by Andrew Billington.
AS YOU LIKE IT
March 9, 2022
Lowry Quay Theatre, Salford, until Saturday, March 12
Northern Broadsides have built a reputation over 30 years for down-to-earth, northern-inflected versions of Shakespeare’s plays, bringing the Bard’s work to the kind of audiences it would have reached when the playwright himself was performing them.
The company’s latest production of As You Like It follows in a similar vein, with a bang-up-to-date “queer” interpretation of one of Will’s more flighty offerings which bends genders, cross-dresses characters and has great fun with the whole notion of identity in ways that its author could barely have imagined.
In the hands of artistic director Laurie Sansom, and co-produced by the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme, the production is brazenly upfront about its refusal to tug any forelocks to four centuries of the play’s history, although the renowned earthiness may suffer a little in the overriding quest for modernity.
That quest proves highly fruitful, however, with non-binary actor EM Williams exploring every possible notion of queer as Rosalind, capably supported by Isobel Coward as Rosalind’s cousin Celia. The pair form the focal point for the politics and power struggles of the Forest of Arden, and it’s their bond that proves strongest in the end.
Joe Morrow plays brilliantly with the contradictions of the clown Touchstone, dragged up and in full panto dame mode to command much of the comedy in the piece, while Bailey Brook delivers the poetry and sensitivity of the verse beautifully in his double roles as Charles the wrestler and lovelorn rustic Silvius.
Performed in the round, there are occasional difficulties with sightlines and audibility, but EM Parry’s clever design, using wooden coatstands for trees and a veritable dressing-up box of wonderful costumes, helps considerably, and Sansom’s direction strikes a nice balance between the comedy and the undoubted note of wistful poignancy.
The show has a long tour ahead of it, but if the cast maintain the levels of enthusiasm and energy on display in Salford, they’ll certainly keep their audiences thoroughly entertained.
March 9, 2022
Lowry Quay Theatre, Salford, until Saturday, March 12
Northern Broadsides have built a reputation over 30 years for down-to-earth, northern-inflected versions of Shakespeare’s plays, bringing the Bard’s work to the kind of audiences it would have reached when the playwright himself was performing them.
The company’s latest production of As You Like It follows in a similar vein, with a bang-up-to-date “queer” interpretation of one of Will’s more flighty offerings which bends genders, cross-dresses characters and has great fun with the whole notion of identity in ways that its author could barely have imagined.
In the hands of artistic director Laurie Sansom, and co-produced by the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme, the production is brazenly upfront about its refusal to tug any forelocks to four centuries of the play’s history, although the renowned earthiness may suffer a little in the overriding quest for modernity.
That quest proves highly fruitful, however, with non-binary actor EM Williams exploring every possible notion of queer as Rosalind, capably supported by Isobel Coward as Rosalind’s cousin Celia. The pair form the focal point for the politics and power struggles of the Forest of Arden, and it’s their bond that proves strongest in the end.
Joe Morrow plays brilliantly with the contradictions of the clown Touchstone, dragged up and in full panto dame mode to command much of the comedy in the piece, while Bailey Brook delivers the poetry and sensitivity of the verse beautifully in his double roles as Charles the wrestler and lovelorn rustic Silvius.
Performed in the round, there are occasional difficulties with sightlines and audibility, but EM Parry’s clever design, using wooden coatstands for trees and a veritable dressing-up box of wonderful costumes, helps considerably, and Sansom’s direction strikes a nice balance between the comedy and the undoubted note of wistful poignancy.
The show has a long tour ahead of it, but if the cast maintain the levels of enthusiasm and energy on display in Salford, they’ll certainly keep their audiences thoroughly entertained.
