Shakespeare: As You Like It Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.5

Shakespeare: As You Like It Blu-ray Movie Review

There's a lot to love in this 'Like It'.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 13, 2010

It’s a shame that there are no doors onstage at Shakespeare’s iconic Globe Theater in London, for in director Thea Sharrock’s production of As You Like It the rapid fire, hectic ambience of French farce is fully on display, so much so that one aches for those famous slamming doors and insane entrances and exits that mark the work of such masters as Feydeau. This bawdy, rambunctious play, one of Shakespeare’s most playfully lascivious, is presented almost like a three ring circus in this energetic production, one where there are often multiple planes of manic energy erupting simultaneously onstage, and where Shakespeare’s magnificent language explodes across the audience in waves of comic fury. Though As You Like It bears at least passing resemblances to several of Shakespeare’s other cross-dressing plays, notably Two Gentlemen of Verona and Twelfth Night, unlike those plays (and Shakespeare’s two others featuring a heroine dressed as a male, namely The Merchant of Venice and Cymbeline), As You Like It plays less on Shakespeare’s nascent proto-feminism than on a sort of distaff, almost Joseph Campbellian hero’s (heroine’s?) journey for Rosalind. While dressing as a male doesn’t afford the character “career” opportunities, as it does in some of Shakespeare’s other similarly clad writing, it does in fact offer Rosalind a certain expressive freedom, especially once she’s banished to the Forest of Arden, than she would have experienced as a female. All of this is of course less ironic for modern audiences than it would have been in Shakespeare’s time, when the female parts would have been acted by young males. Gender identity issues are evidently not just the stuff of post-modern consciousnesses fraught with the stresses of the Nuclear Age.

The audience arriving at The Globe.

One of As You Like It’s most iconic speeches is the famous Seven Ages of Man segment, which begins, “All the world’s a stage,” and director Sharrock evidently took those words to heart in her staging of the play. This As You Like It seeps into the audience in often thrilling and visceral ways. Orlando and Charles’ battle takes place right out amidst the audience, as if these paying customers are ringside at the Elizabethan version of the WWF. When Jaques waxes comedically about a “whining schoolboy with his satchel and shining morning face,” he walks out on one of several thrusts which protrude into the audience and singles out a young boy, pointing to the lad as he speaks, resulting in the youth blushing and laughing at suddenly finding himself part of this famous play. Dick Bird’s inventively spare set design also transforms some of the Globe’s pillars into the woods of the Forest of Arden, so that the lines are blurred between the stage, the setting, and the audience, so that “all the men and women” who are merely players doesn’t just refer to the actors. This is a particularly inclusive production which literally makes the audience part of the panoply of events.

It’s perhaps a bit odd that one of Shakespeare’s other cross-dressing comedies, Twelfth Night, has been musicalized several times (including the off-Broadway hit Your Own Thing, which followed in the rock opera footsteps of Hair, and then decades later both Music Is and Play On!, the latter of which utilized Duke Ellington tunes for its score). It’s odd because As You Like It is one of the most uncommonly musical texts that Shakespeare wrote, though audiences have had to sit through less than stellar interpolated songs through the centuries. Here musical director Rob Millett leads a completely anachronistic yet perfectly adroit brass band (think polkas and oohm-pa-pa) in some vigorous songs by composer Stephen Warbeck. What might seem completely foreign in another production here works beautifully, as (and I’m not kidding here) does the Bollywood “jig” which closes the production, perhaps an homage to Slumdog Millionaire.

In fact As You Like It is a study in juxtapositions like these to begin with, which Sharrock smartly realizes and uses to her benefit throughout the production. The melting of genders and sex roles is really just the surface here; there’s also the disparity between the court of Duke Frederick and the Forest of Arden, and of course the obvious oppositional antics between Rosalind and Celia and Orlando and Oliver. The entire cast of this production revels in these differences, with Naomi Frederick a standout as Rosalind and her alter-ego Ganymede. Dominic Rowan’s fool, Touchstone, is a madcap interpretation, and Tim McMullan’s Jaques is full of the world-weary melancholy that makes so many of the character’s speeches so redolent of wisdom earned through trial and tribulation.

It’s perhaps surprising to realize that As You Like It has not been universally applauded by critics and Shakespeare scholars. Some have even insisted that Shakespeare was more or less “coasting” with this play, biding time until greater works flowed from his pen. That argument may be as unintentionally hilarious as any of the intentional comedy Shakespeare crafted for the stage. If a play this grandly eloquent is “coasting,” one would be hard pressed to think of what a “motorized” version of this work would be like. Effortlessly frenzied while completely grounded at the same time, As You Like It is certainly one of the most multi-layered of Shakespeare’s comedies, one that reveals hidden meanings and cross-relations the more it’s viewed. Luckily this splendid production is vibrant enough to warrant those repeat viewings, and chances are this presentation will indeed be as you like it.

Shakespeare: As You Like It Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Opus Arte has been leading the way in high-def presentations of opera, ballets and concert fare throughout the Blu-ray era, and it's wonderful that they are now branching out to include these marvelous live performances from Shakespeare's Globe Theater. Encoded via AVC and delivered in a 1080i "live" transfer with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, this is a sharp and colorful As You Like It which transports the television viewer right into the action a lot of the time. Detail is largely exceptional throughout this presentation, with the wonderful period costumes almost revealing their stitch work in some of the close-ups. There is some extremely minor and very passing artifacting in some of the heavily brocaded and patterened women's costumes, but that's the only negative issue to report. Otherwise, we have a splendidly colorful presentation, with accurate flesh tones, very pleasing contrast and black levels, and a really sharp and well detailed image.

Shakespeare: As You Like It Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Globe Theater is really surprisingly small, at least in its stage area, and so neither of the lossless audio options (a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and an LPCM 2.0 stereo fold down) offer a huge soundfield. That said, the DTS track is relatively spacious and presents Shakespeare's glorious text with absolute clarity. Surround channels do kick in with audience reactions and spill of the marvelous accompanying music. The overall ambience is also very well represented, so that the listener has a very "real" experience in terms of what sitting in The Globe must be like. Balance is exceptional throughout, and even when the audience is reacting with uproarious laughter, little to no dialogue gets lost.

Shakespeare: As You Like It Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

My only real complaint with the two Opus Arte Globe releases thus far is the relative dearth of bonus material. As with the previously released Romeo and Juliet, all we're given is a bookmarking feature which lets you jump to "famous speeches," and a cast gallery. It would be great if Opus Arte could persuade The Globe to craft some play-specific documentaries about each of these masterpieces to include on each Blu-ray. There is a very informative and enjoyable essay about the play in the insert booklet.

Shakespeare: As You Like It Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This rambunctious and enjoyably hectic interpretation of one of Shakespeare's most convoluted plots is a fleet and funny tour de force. Sharrock both figuratively and literally reaches out to the audience (both the one in attendance and by extension the one viewing at home) and makes them a part of this epic adventure. As You Like It is a surprisingly deep piece of writing which hides its profundity in buffoonery and clowning, but don't be fooled by this circus-like surface. Shakespeare was obviously no fool, and his writing remains a Touchstone (pun intended) that both entertains and instructs several centuries after the Bard took pen to paper. This production comes very highly recommended.