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 Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble
Roma Street Parklands - Fri Oct 09
As You Like It is one of Shakespeare’s crowd-pleasers – the clue’s right there in the title, As You Like It – full of comedy and melodrama. It’s the story of various exiles in the Forest Of Arden whose paths cross and re-cross coincidentally. There’s Rosalind, who dresses as a boy partly for safety’s sake and partly because, as she acknowledges, it’s pretty funny. There’s also the entire court of the Duchess, her mother, living Robin Hood-style in the greenwood and Orlando, Rosalind’s love, who writes soppy poetry all over the forest’s trees. As You Like It is a pastoral romantic comedy full of touches that mock its own genre – it’s Shakespeare’s Scream, basically. Orlando’s lovesick poetry is laughably bad, Rosalind brings the jester Touchstone into exile with her just because you should have one in this sort of play and the multi-marriage ending is transparently arbitrary in being arranged for maximum happiness all round.
The Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble have staged several productions at the Roma Street Parkland Amphitheatre and know how to use it to full effect. The audience sits on the stage with them and scene follows scene fluidly as they rush off left and right (and sometimes drop right off the edge) past a minimal set that’s just a wall, a log and a pile of hay. Being a rural comedy the country folk’s costumes include overalls, flannel, a straw hat and a pair of Daisy Duke denim shorts. Jane Cameron plays the wrestler Charles as a bogan in a tracksuit, jutting her chin out and widening her walk hilariously. Since there’s cross-dressing at the story’s heart the actors indulge in plenty of it, with many of the male roles played by women. The size of the cast has several of them playing multiple characters as well, and Cameron’s transformation from yobbish Charles to the commanding Duchess is especially impressive. Liz Verbraak is also kept busy, transforming from Le Beau to Amiens to William with ease.
Rosalind (Ruby Drewery) and Orlando (Colin Smith) caper around like giddy children in love, responsible for the broadest comedy and pathos. Silvius the shepherd (Toby Martin) – who is in love with Phebe (Belinda Small) who is in love with Ganymede who is actually Rosalind in disguise – deserves special mention for winning over the audience instantly with his wide-eyed mooning and plentiful weeping.
The QSE have been doing Shakespeare’s comedies long enough that they’ve got the rhythms down pat and there’s usually something amusing happening in the background while the soliloquising goes on. Rob Pensalfini as Touchstone steals a scene just by goofing off on the hay in the background. They also weave music into the play to excellent effect (several of the actors are musicians as well and disgustingly talented), both to set the mood along the way and bookend the story. The all-in, out-of-key musical finale is fittingly a crowd-pleaser and like the whole performance is very much as we like it.
JODY MACGREGOR
The QUEENSLAND SHAKESPEARE ENSEMBLE perform AS YOU LIKE IT at Roma Street Parkland’s Amphitheatre on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from Oct 22 to Nov 1.
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