As You Like It

Bard on the Beach to September 30, 2023
Tickets from $30 at 604-739-0559 or www.bardonthebeach.org

Posted June 19, 2023

Funny? OMG, yes. I am not, generally speaking, a laugh-out-loud-at-the-theatre kind of person but several times in this Bard on the Beach production, adapted and directed by Daryl Cloran, I completely lost it. Thank you, thank you, Andrew McNee, Ben Elliott, Emma Slipp, Alexandra Lainfiesta (“Something”) and Scott Bellis (“I Am The Walrus”) for tickling my funnybone so often and so hard, I may need to wear a sling for a week.

So: it’s a ridiculous plot full of love-at-first-sights; yeah, yeah, it’s one of those Shakespeare plays. And lots of hiding in the shrubbery. “Why are we hiding?”, asks Corin (Sharon Crandall). “Because it’s Shakespeare”, replies Touchstone (Andrew McNee).

On a broader scale, Rosalind (Chelsea Rose) and Celia (Naomi Ngebulana), disguised as young guy Ganymede and gal pal Aliena, respectively, are hiding out in the Woods of Okanagan. Rosalind has been banished from Kitsilano by nasty Dame Frances (Jennifer Lines), and Rosalind’s best friend Celia goes with. Also banished by Dame Frances  and in fear of his life is young Orlando (Oscar Derkx) whose older brother Oliver (Matthew MacDonald-Bain) is out to get him. Wouldn’t you just know it, they all meet up in the wilds of the Okanagan where they meet a bunch of hippies and rustics and they all fall in love. But not the way they planned.

Did I say this show is packed with a couple of dozen Beatles songs? Well, damn, why didn’t I say so earlier? This As You Like It is made for those who think they don’t like Shakespeare but love the Beatles. Also for boomers, their children and their grandchildren. Everyone, actually. Including visitors from Jolly Olde where they take their Shakespeare seriously. This is Shakespeare for those who haven’t had a good laugh since the Beforetime.

And voices. Both Rose and Ngebulana can knock a song out of the tent and so can Derkx, who makes the sweetest, most tongue-tied wooer. And why am I always so surprised that Bellis (as Jaques) can sing, too? I think of him as a serious, non-singing, non-dancing Shakespearean but his “Walrus” is hilarious. Goo goo g’joob and all that. That being said, his “All the world’s a stage” soliloquy is rich in reflection, tinged with melancholy. Lovely.

Andrew Wheeler, one of the few on the stage who might actually have been around in the 60s, tugs at the heartstrings  as aged Adam who haltingly accompanies Orlando but later perks up to play a mean trombone in celebration.

And, naturally, it being the Okanagan, the sun does shine. Absolutely no one is as sunny as Jennifer Lines who, in a couple of the quickest costume changes on record, plays the nice Dame, Dame Senior, as well as the nasty Dame Frances. As Dame Frances she wears a natty little two-piece suit and a lot of attitude; as Dame Senior, she’s dressed in yellowy flares and a sunshiny shirt with huge flared sleeves, rose-coloured granny glasses and a headband to hold back that mass of curls. Lines brings such warmth to the stage that you almost believe “All You Need is Love.” Truly, she can light up a dark tent on a rainy night.

Period-perfect costumes are by Carmen Alatorre (fringed vests, flares, patchwork); set design by Pam Johnson (including a wrestling ring that starts the show and sets the breakneck pace); and musical direction by Ben Elliott. Choreography and fight direction (yes, there will be bruises on Marco Walker Ng who plays Charles The Wrestler) by Jonathan Hawley Purvis. Henry Beasley, Ben Elliott, Evan Rein, Isaiah Terrell-Dobbs and Sally Zori make up the live, onstage band.

Of course, the script is seriously cut to fit all the highjinx and Beatles stuff in. But rather than taking away from the story, it actually makes it tighter and more readily understood. And these are seasoned actors who understand phrasing and the proper delivery of the line. I heard Shakespeare’s words more clearly than ever before and that goes for the Beatles lyrics, too. Add to this, superior comedic skills, trained voices, ensemble playing and what do you get? A hit, a veritable hit.

And that’s what this As You Like It is: a hit. You will like it. Your friends will like it. Your guests will like it. And when it goes on to Washington, DC at the end of the Bard season, Washington will like it, too. Could it be Broadway bound? Bard artistic director Christopher Gaze and the entire team would be singing, “Good Day Sunshine” if that were to happen.