Raining Roses, pelted with poetry.
As You Like It. The Globe Theatre. London 10 October 2009.
This was pretty much the end of the season at The Globe and with their final performance of As You the play concluded with us of in the yard being the recipients of roses. It summed up the play really; a captivating way of spending the afternoon.
We moved seamlessly from the asceticism of the court to the relative liberty of the forest with a few short whisks from black fabrics to more natural tones. Naomi Frederick was a determined and energetic Rosalind whilst Jack Laskey was an endearingly skinny and buggy-eyed Orlando. (Always a good sign, he was one of the best performances in last year’s rather nasty Taming of the Shrew at the RSC.)
Tim McMullan was a deliciously pompous aging roué in the role of the melancholy Jacques. Most of the time he was lapping up his outsider status but genuinely moving as he reaches the sad dénouement of the seven ages of man. Dominic Rowan was an entertaining and wildly riotous Touchstone whilst a number of the cast did a good job swanning about in fabulous leather costumes.
Marked chiefly by delight this production maybe did not have the intensity and ultimate beauty of the current RSC production, but it filled our afternoon with charm and enchantment.
This was pretty much the end of the season at The Globe and with their final performance of As You the play concluded with us of in the yard being the recipients of roses. It summed up the play really; a captivating way of spending the afternoon.
We moved seamlessly from the asceticism of the court to the relative liberty of the forest with a few short whisks from black fabrics to more natural tones. Naomi Frederick was a determined and energetic Rosalind whilst Jack Laskey was an endearingly skinny and buggy-eyed Orlando. (Always a good sign, he was one of the best performances in last year’s rather nasty Taming of the Shrew at the RSC.)
Tim McMullan was a deliciously pompous aging roué in the role of the melancholy Jacques. Most of the time he was lapping up his outsider status but genuinely moving as he reaches the sad dénouement of the seven ages of man. Dominic Rowan was an entertaining and wildly riotous Touchstone whilst a number of the cast did a good job swanning about in fabulous leather costumes.Marked chiefly by delight this production maybe did not have the intensity and ultimate beauty of the current RSC production, but it filled our afternoon with charm and enchantment.
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