REVIEW: As You Like It , The Attic Theatre, Stratford, June 19-21

There was a lovely surprise at The Attic Theatre last week in the visit of Silver Bear Productions in collaboration with Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and their production of As You Like It. Conceived as an open air performance, after two outdoor venues they gave four performances at The Attic, writes Peter Buckroyd.

This was a highly energetic ensemble production which showed considerable versatility in adapting their production with great panache to the unusual confines of The Attic.

I have to admit that in the past I have enjoyed most productions of As You Like It which exploit the potential dark edges of the play. This one doesn’t. It is a pure festive comedy and I was forced to revise my preference.

Played with a cast of 12 the story was told beautifully clearly so that those who did not know the play could follow it perfectly. Those who knew the play well were constantly delighted by the great casting, imaginative touches and inspired direction of Daniele Sanderson.

The whole play was built on the premise of audience involvement. There was constant interaction with the audience by means of direct address, characters sitting amongst the audience and the selection of an unwitting audience member as Sir Oliver Martext. It was impossible avoid the allure of the topless wresting between Ewan Schooler’s Orlando and Max Jordan’s Charles. Jasmine Hill’s Duke Frederick was immediately given a distinct role as villain by being the only character not to make eye contact or to interact with the audience. Hamish MacAulay gave a foreboding weight to Oliver. Oliver Patrick Euan Large’s Charlie Chaplin inspired Adam made it insignificant that here was an old character played by a young actor. Tom McMillan’s very physical Touchstone was both hilarious and rather scary. Erin Findlay’s exiled Duke had an unexpectedly jolly and good-tempered demeanour. Edie Murphy’s Jacques had a liveliness and wit that I have not seen in the character before and she admirably delivered the ‘All the world’s a stage’ speech with simplicity, straightforwardness and without any histrionic gimmicks. The decision to make Ffion Morgan’s Rosalind less expressive than Julia Holland’s Celia gave an unexpected balance shift to the play. And to cast Jessica Bonner as an alluring looking Phoebe made clear what rubbish Touchstone talked.

The whole production was peppered with delightful detail – from Adam’s replacement hip to Orlando’s beer bottle and shades, to the proliferation of regional accents when actors played different characters, to the completely unexpected ‘lusty horn’ chase, to Corin’s pipe, to Jacques drinking a can of Strongbow and to the Duke taking pictures of the couples at the wedding.

There was some very good light and airy singing too with songs set by Jasmine Hill and Erin Findlay. The costumes were great. For me the stars of the show were Ewan Schooler as Orlando whose infatuation with and fascination for Rosalind were delightful to watch and Julia Holland as a wonderfully expressive Celia. They seemed to me to be two young actors to look out for.