| Alexandra Kaplan Reviewed: As You Like It at Theater Lab (NYC) Performance dates: Imagine—a play that leaves you happy! Not, half-happy, half-pondering. Not, happy with a taste of bitterness in your mouth. Just, simply, happy. As You Like It is through and through a happy play, and the players of Happy Few Theatre Company seem to know there is no better way to put up a show than to keep faith with its essential character. Thus we are much pleased with this modern-setting version of Shakespeare's most gender-bending play.
Which is not to say that a play may not be smart as well as happy. As You Like It begs the question of whether love has gender at all, yet smartly this production salutes that imponderable without delving too deeply into the philosophy. We are spared confusion (and the sadness which is an ever-present risk of living too readily!) and allowed to have and enjoy the happy fun. We leave satisfied, as though the last two and a half hours were time well spent. In this hearty contemporary take, the characters are recognizably modern: they use computers and search desperately for cell reception as they travel through the Forest of Arden. While mostly keeping the modern touches in close connection with Shakespeare's intentions—merely updating the original bawdy humor and timeless plot twists—the risk of this kind of gimmick is overdoing it. There are moments when the first half seems crowded by modern references, especially since the direction shies away from them in the second half. The flash of a magazine with Miley Cyrus calls attention to itself. Video elements, hip in conception, add little but are not disruptive. The directors are keen on keeping the pace fast and fluid, and depend upon the cast to keep things moving. It is not set dressing and stage property, but the talented actors and actresses that make this a memorable show. Anna O'Donoghue as Celia makes Elizabethan dialogue startlingly familiar. Ellen Adair is all charm and chumminess in the role of Rosalind, playing a game partner-in-crime. Nat Cassidy's performance as hopeless Silvius is utter hilarity. The music—much of it original, and performed live—is fun and folksy, as well suits the goings-on. It too, was strangely familiar: as though it transcended time periods. Well, a good joke is timeless, as is a happy song and a wry line well delivered. An endearing chemistry emanates from this group of men and women. The genderless love shared among the characters is a thing of reality for this cast, even if it is a different sort of romance. Call it the romance of art, or maybe the romantic pleasure of being an emerging theater company, small but vibrant, in a bright big city. The little this play lacks in establishment polish and fluency, it makes up for in sheer warmth of spirit. The directors have kindled a glad fire in the heart of each of their players. If all the world is a stage, this is a happy corner of it. Recommended.
_ _ Alexandra Kaplan studied English at Northeastern University. She is at present making a living as a PR professional; one of her clients played earlier this year for Queen Latifah at the Super Bowl. Alexandra may be found writing in the dark of her room, wandering the streets of Astoria, or confusing the staff at Starbucks with non-standard "secret menu" requests. |
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ISSN 2150-6795 |