AS YOU LIKE IT AS A HIGH TECH FARCE/COMEDY AT SAN JOSE REP

(l to r) Rosalind (Anna Bullard), Touchstone (Steve Irish) and Celia (Cristi Miles) contemplate the meaning of ‘for sworn’ in San Jose Repertory Theatre’s production of As You Like It.

Photo credit: Kevin Berne

AS YOU LIKE IT by William Shakespeare, directed by Artistic Director Rick Lombardo. San Jose Repertory Theatre, 101 Paseo de San Antonio, San Jose, CA. 408.367.7255 or can be www.SJRep.com. , August 29 - September 27.

AS YOU LIKE IT AS A HIGH TECH FARCE/COMEDY AT SAN JOSE REP

Shakespeare’s romantic comedy As You Like lends itself to concept performance and as such has had terrific productions at the Ashland and Cal Shakes venues within the past year. To review Artistic Director Rick Lombardo’s inaugural production without thought of those previous stagings is difficult. Lombardo has drummed up a magnificent high tech production with a top-notch cast of local luminaries that is not fully satisfying. He has conjured up the more farcical elements that overpower the inherent comedy and romance of Shakespeare’s words. Yet, the production values and flashes of acting brilliance make this a must see show.

As it often is with a Shakespeare comedy, genders become confused, there are good guys and bad guys, mistaken identities and always a loveable rogue as the jester to speak the most quotable lines. In this production, only four of the 12 cast members play individual roles and the other eight are assigned double and triple parts. However, the acting ability of the eight is sufficiently honed for you to create your own scorecard without reading the program. The “artistic collaborators” often steal the thunder from the acting, directing and the plot.

Most of the action takes place in an unnamed Dukedom and in the pastoral Forest of Arden. Media and scenic designer David Lee Cuthbert uses five banks of two story high plasma screens on the back of the stage to project eye-popping scenes beginning with an apple orchard that morphs into a grand staircase in the palace of Duke Frederick. Added to this is the original music by Haddon Givens Kime that is sung beautifully by Sepideh Moafi and enhanced by Daniel Meeker’s lighting design. Thus the cast has not only to perform admirably but also to compete with the staging.

Most of the cast is not only up to the task, they have moments of brilliance. The always reliable James Carpenter as the morose Jaques gives one of the best readings of Shakespeare’s famous soliloquy beginning with “ All the world’s a stage, and all the men an women merely players.” Popular Steve Irish, dressed in a tuxedo clown outfit complete with re-button nose, plays the fool/jester Touchstone with broad strokes and his verbal duel with Andy Murray as Corin the old Shepard is an absolute delight. Touchstone’s bawdy pursuit of goat herder Audrey (Sepideh Moafi) is appropriately lascivious. Murray’s multiple roles as vindictive Duke Frederick, kindly Duke Senior and hayseed Corin are remarkably distinct not allowing their individual attributes to overlap.

Rosalind (Anna Bullard) is Shakespeare’s protagonist and the cement that holds the scenes together while bringing the convoluted plot to fruition. Her small physical stature is a hindrance and her transformation from seductive female to all knowing youthful boy/man with the name of Ganymede lacks verisimilitude. Celia (Cristi Miles), Rosalind’s best friend and traveling companion has the right touch of sexual femininity as she bounds across the stage in youthful exuberance. Blake Ellis is Orlando, the son of Duke Senior disinherited by his eldest brother Oliver (an inadequate Adam Yazbeck) and is poetically love stricken with Rosalind. He has the perfect touch of innocence as well as the physical stature to create a powerful fight scene with wrestler Charles (Craig Marker). That fight scene staged as a high tech version of a no-holds-barred Ultimate Fight Tournament is a marvel (fight choreographer Dave Mair) and frightening to watch. Marker also has the unenviable role of country bumpkin Silvius in love with Phebe (Jeanette Penley) who is smitten with Ganymede/Rosalind. Their outlandish Las Vegas style cowboy outfits and Penley’s distracting physical contortions are farcical distractions.

With a running time is 2 hours and 45 minutes there are bound to attention lapses but Lombardo’s use of the most advanced technology available for the stage makes this play a must see production.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com