When I booked this show, it sounded idyllic – the legendary Jonathan Groff playing Rosalind in an all-male version of “As You Like It” in the beautiful setting of Stratford-Upon-Avon. VK and I visited once before, in 2023, and I remembered it being lovely, apart from a little light drizzle. Well, this year’s visit featured more than a little light drizzle.
As did the 2023 version, now I check back. My selective memory had obviously wiped out the torrential rain that greeted us when we left the station. I wonder if I’ll do the same in a few years’ time when I think about the Storm Boelo welcome we received when we got to the car park. It was around 4pm and the clocks had not yet gone back, but it was pretty much dark because of the rain and Reuben’s umbrella turned inside out almost instantly and broke.
We’d parked at the multi-storey just by the bridge over the Avon – it was a few minutes’ walk from the apartment we were staying in and meant we didn’t need to deal with the one way system of a town not built for cars. There was a car park right next to the apartment but the Google reviews were a bit concerning….so multi-storey outta town it was.
The reviews for the apartment were also a bit worrying. I didn’t even know there were any lap dancing clubs in Stratford-Upon-Avon but I’d managed to book an apartment above one. There was talk of “thumping music all night”, “5AM fights” and “had to call the police”…so I was anticipating a bad night. I packed ear plugs for us all and hoped for the best. At least we managed to get into the place – the night before had seen me calling Booking.com’s call centre, desperately trying to find out the code to get in. I was told it would be provided “on arrival”, which was not reassuring and eventually I managed to get the details before we left London. Which was just as well, given how wet it was when we arrived.
The apartment itself was perfectly nice – two bedrooms and a living area, which meant we could spread out a bit. There were 43 steps up, which was a little challenging for VK but she managed it. As soon as we were in, I went straight to M&S to buy fresh socks for Roo (he stepped in a puddle) and a coat for VK (she didn’t think this through when packing). Then to Tesco Express for breakfast stuff and some umbrellas and finally we had everything we needed to go and visit the Forest of Arden.
First though, dinner. And seeing as everything in S-u-A is named after something Shakespearean, it was at the Prospero Lounge, which is the same chain as Metro Lounge in Amersham. We were meeting my bro, my SIL and CousinZ who were all coming to see the play as well. The “Lounge” chains always work well for these family gatherings. There are great vegetarian options there for VK, it’s wheelchair-friendly which is good for my SIL, and they also welcome dogs. Win win win. We had a nice, relaxed dinner and then made a dash through the storm to the theatre.
On our last visit, we took in a couple of Shakespeare productions but, it being July, they were open air and casual. We’d never been to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, unless that was where I saw MSND with my sister at some undefined point of the 90s. And we’d definitely never been to this modern version, with lifts to all floors and the same kind of high seats as you get at the Bridge Theatre. They are not the most comfortable seats but they were certainly….affordable. And tickets for this particular show were bound to go quickly, so I snapped up what I could. There was a column in front of some of our seats but we managed to look around it and were pretty close to the stage, given that we were in the circle.
The set at the start was, as you can see, very stark. It wasn’t at all what I’d expect from a story set in a forest. But happily this was only the backdrop for the court scenes and the eventual forest effect was very pleasing indeed. I won’t spoil it but the magic of stage management pulled off a most dramatic transformation.
The start was jarring in lots of ways. There were sudden loud noises, and flashing lights and Rosalind being pursued by what looked like fascists in grey uniforms. The scene between Orlando and Oliver was pretty brutal and I was starting to think that this wasn’t the gay romp I’d believed it to be from the advertising.
Don’t worry. It did not disappoint. Like the set, there was an abrupt change of mood partway through the first act and after that, the life and death stakes dissipate somewhat.
(I’ll talk about the ending in a bit but I do remember how I swore never to nitpick Shakespeare again. Well, short version is….I’m going to do just that when we get to the ending. Even shorter version – what life and death stakes??)
There is some comedy early on though – it’s not all testosteroney wrestling matches and death threats. Jonathan Groff makes what will surely become a fan favourite appearance in a bath, wearing mostly just bubbles. He later climbs out and puts on a robe but from that fleeting moment, it would appear that he is *committing to the bit* And it was mercifully fleeting but do remember that nothing in a stage production is there by accident. To be crude, if Jonathan Groff didn’t want the audience to see his bum, he wouldn’t have shown the audience his bum.
Now that I’ve said that, the already rare tickets are going to be snapped up, aren’t they? I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who would pay hundreds of pounds for this privilege. I should say he’s not my particular cup of tea – far too clean-cut for my tastes – so this is not a David Tennant kind of situation. But I’m sure many, many others think differently. Which is good, because the whole plot of the show seems to be “Absolutely everybody is attracted to the character Jonathan Groff plays, no matter what their gender or what gender he’s purporting to be”. A very short pair of shorts helps to drive this narrative along.
Of course, that’s not an invention of this production – it’s right there in the script. Almost every character seems to find either Rosalind or Ganymede attractive and therein lies the plot. To make a very obvious point on this particular production that I’m sure every other reviewer has already made – we are watching a man playing a woman who’s impersonating a man who’s roleplaying as a woman. Gender confusion abounds, as it so often does in Shakespeare.
Enough about JG ‘s bottom. There are some very beautiful aspects to this production that are very far removed from that particular feature. It’s ambiguous in the script as to where the Forest of Arden is and this version chooses to place it firmly in Wales. That means that the “Arden 7” as the ensemble are called in the programme function as a sort of male voice choir, performing a capella songs in Welsh as transitional pieces between scenes and sometimes mid-scene. It’s absolutely gorgeous and a huge contrast to the loud noisescape of the opening scenes in the court. As I mentioned earlier, the set that moves in over the white stage is green and multi-layered, allowing the cast to move around at different levels, hiding behind tufts and resting in hollows. Lush, as I’m sure the Ardenites would say.
Occasionally, this does verge on the panto – Audrey is almost Dame-like, with her giant blond bouffant and her Welsh flag shoes – but that’s OK because Audrey is a bit of a caricature anyway. In this production she’s played by Gareth Snook, who also plays Adam – a character that’s important to Orlando in the first act and then just kinda disappears. It’s useful for this multi-roleing but did leave me googling “what happened to Adam?” afterwards. He probably recovers and goes off hunting, according to Reddit. That’s the positive spin anyway.
Talking of Orlando, all kudos to Elliot Barnes-Worrell for a spectacular performance. You might not think it’s a tough job pretending to be in love with Jonathan Groff’s male and slightly-less-male personas but Orlando has to be a steady character in the face of much chaos and Elliot Barnes-Worrell manages a fine balance of passion and groundedness. I would be laughing on stage all the time if I were him but he never breaks character and makes us really care about Orlando, both when he’s under threat from his brother and when he’s skipping around a forest glade with Ganymede.
I should also mention Fisayo Akinade as Celia/Aliena, which is another character that has to be something of a foil to Rosalind without much of her own character development. Fisayo Akinade gives Celia a lightness and a sassiness that gives a bit of life to her, even in scenes where she has very few lines, like the fake wedding scene between Ganymede and Orlando, with Aliena acting as priest. Her facial expressions at that point steal the scene, even with so much else going on.
There’s a great supporting cast too. Gary Wilmot, who is a familiar face from TV, acts as the senior authority figure in the cast, lending gravitas to the dual role of Dukes Frederick and Senior. Greg Haiste is both frivolous and melancholy as Touchstone, while the even-more melancholy Jacques is played as an elder gay kind of character by Richard McCabe, dishing out life advice as well as the odd caress. It is, as you’d expect, quite a male-coded production but with enough feminine expression throughout to give it some balance. I particularly enjoyed Tim Preston’s portrayal of Phoebe, fastidiously neat and self-controlled, even in the midst of the madness.
Which brings me on to that ending I always roll my eyes at. Phoebe, in my opinion, is manipulated into marrying Silvius (a very sweet and gentle Edward Judge) through quite some gaslighting and wordplay on Rosalind’s part. The implication in this production is that Phoebe would be prepared to marry Rosalind, whatever her gender presentation but Phoebe feels bound by societal norms….and the somewhat silly vow she was forced to make. Oliver and Celia similarly annoys me because there is no build up whatsoever – he turns up, they fall in love and then get married the next day. I said in my previous “As You Like It” review that it feels very much like Shakespeare is trying to top the triple wedding of MSND but having a quadruple wedding and I stick by that. It comes to something when Touchstone and Audrey are the second-most authentic couple.
And the two plot devices that remove all the Act 1 jeopardy? Preposterous. There are no lions in Wales, at least not the last time I looked. And the Duke Frederick holy conversion seems like nothing more than a way to ensure an actor can dual role without having to swap hats in the last scene. But those are issues in the play and nothing the RSC could do could possibly make them better. I guess the important thing is that everything works out well, right?
So, it may be nonsensical at the end but it is a thoroughly enjoyable play and this production would be a great starter Shakespeare if anyone was attending for the Groff factor alone. We all thought it was great and the 2.5 hour runtime went quickly, even if the high seats were not the most comfortable.
And you’ll be pleased to know that we got a perfectly good night’s sleep as well! Our apartment was a couple of floors above the strip club and actually, our position at the end of a long corridor meant we weren’t directly above it either. We did hear a few drunken people wandering down the street but living on a main road in HP has prepared us well for that kind of thing.
The next morning, it was also a lot less rainy so we could finally see S-u-A at its best:
We wandered around the market, got stung for sweet treats by the children. and went for coffee at the cute little Huffkins tearooms and then went back to Prospero Lounge for lunch. I know, we’re predictable but there’s something to be said for knowing your environment.
We also did a bit of charity shopping, looked around the Shakespeare shop and checked out the outside of the birthplace:
VK and I already did the birthplace tour last time we were there so I somewhat meanly refused to pay for us all to go this time. Instead, we did something we weren’t able to last time and went to see Shakespeare’s grave at Holy Trinity Church.
That involves a little bit of a walk along the river, which was fine in the sun but might have been miserable in torrential rain:
The church isn’t open to the public on a Sunday morning, except for services so we waited until after lunch before heading down. There’s a small price to pay to see the grave but for that, you also get to see Shakespeare’s will and some ancient graffiti:
There’s also the gorgeous American window in St Peter’s Chapel, which is a space for quiet contemplation….or a nice sit down, according to VK:
The actual graves are slightly underwhelming and there was always a bit of a crowd around them. Nathan enjoyed the wording tho – we were indeed blessed for not grave robbing:
And with that, it was pretty much time to head back to London via Banbury. There was a small shower on our way back through the market, but that meant we spotted a bit of a rainbow, which was good. Not enough of a rainbow to get a decent picture of it though. We stopped to get VK a bubble waffle and then back to the car. It was a lovely weekend, even if we failed to anticipate the stormier bits. Even staying above a strip club – weirdly enough, would recommend. I’m sure Shakespeare could spin a full comedy out of that set up….
