Went to see this today....and it was great!
Very fine Rosalind, Celia and Orlando....and the fool was the funniest I have seen. I would have to say that Orlando was very attractive and Celia made a very fine feisty youth. I enjoyed the production style far more than the style of recent RSC plays(too much thrown at the plays?)....last year's King Lear was also excellent. My only gripe was that they had extended the stage forward a bit and put in a couple of walkways through the crowd and it was a bit hard to see some of the action on these bits from the top tier....there is a reason that the original stage is the size it it! Having said that a fine day out.
Review here
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culture...e---review.html

Saw it this afternoon and utterly adored it. Very fine performances from the cast; especially Jack Laskey and Naomi Frederick. Great fun and hugely enjoyable. I'll be going back.

How was Jamie Parker?

A hot Orlando and a feisty Celia! You may have just made my day! Roll on July!

I saw the RSC production this afternoon and had mixed feelings (very clear with a lovely Rosalind and Orlando, but I hated the aesthetic and Mariah Gale, who I liked so much in Hamlet and Love's Labour's Lost, was very whiny as Celia), so this sounds very promising. Naomi Frederick was wonderful in Measure for Measure and Brief Encounter.

Very good....both brothers are very funny when they fall instantly in love....Jamie looks gorgeous in a lovely white shirt when he appears in the forest and I enjoyed his speech at that point as you could hear every word so clearly.
Touchstone and Jacques are just plain masterpieces....and with all the parts so well played it is hard to fault this one. The costumes are also brill....who could fail to fall for Orlando in his rather casually worn leather attire?! Swoon.....

Saw this Saturday night and was completely enchanted. It became obvious very early on that this production is in a class of its own. I tried to find fault with it but failed. Immediately booked a groundling ticket for the midnight matinee, which should be a scream.

Each of the characters was so well defined and the actors were giving excellent, dare I say it, definitive performances of their respective roles. I completely bought into it.

The jig at the end was joyous and dynamic and seemed to express the obvious fun everyone was having with the production rather than being just a Globe tradition tacked onto the end of a lacklustre event.

For me the really funny bit was the way that the sky darkened and a chill gust of wind blew through the Globe at the precise moment that the lords in the forest were singing about 'rough weather'!

I went a few weeks ago in previews and agree that it's a marvellous production. It was my first time at the Globe and for the first 10 mins or so there was a lot of shuffling etc. as people found where they wanted to stand, but after that Shakespeare's magic took over and everyone was completely captivated. The whole thing was very funny and I felt it trod the line between traditional (in costume and staging) and modern (in interpretation, most often in the comedy) extremely well. Reading this thread it sounds like this is a particularly good production for the Globe, but either way it certainly made me want to go again at some point.

I've blogged about my visit to As You Like It here: http://theatricalleanings.blogspot.com/200...be-theatre.html.

I must agree that it's a wonderful production. I went to the midnight matinee and it was spectacular. What did you think, Duncan? Everyone was buzzing, from actors to audience, and although it felt a little flat for the first few minutes, it soon wound up into a hilarious, clever comedy that the audience were roaring at. Tim McMullan and Dominic Rowan were particularly to blame for this! I love the audience participation that you get at the Globe, you really feel involved in a proper, Shakespearian kind of way!

Perhaps because of the late hour, we managed to make the cast corpse and pause quite a lot, which is always fun. Jack Laskey is particularly bad at keeping a straight face but it was utterly charming when he lost it and burst into laughter!

He, by the way, is awesome. I read one review which said if he wore cologne, it would be Eau de Tennant, and that's so true. A wonderful new find. And Jamie Parker was, as in Revenger's, utterly excellent. Clear as a bell, believable and an incredibly centred performance. What an actor. Definitely going again (and again) before October.

The midnight matinee was great fun. I was amazed at how the cast managed to maintain its concentration and energy levels. I had rushed to the Globe directly after seeing The Winter's Tale up the road at the Old Vic, and by the end of the night I was beginning to flag, yet they all seemed as fresh as the proverbial daisies.

I'm glad I've got a seat (proper centre of middle gallery one) booked for the Troilus and Cressida MM at the end of July, as I've decided that midnight matinees are a great way of seeing Globe productions. The audience is very dedicated and the atmosphere is really special.

The absolute best thing about this particular production is that it's on until the end of the Globe season in October and at £5 I can't imagine turning down another opportunity to witness what has to be one of the best productions I've ever seen.

Encouraged by all your positive comments I've booked for this - had to go to September to get 2 good seats together of the dates I could do . So something to look forward to before the Autumn chills.

Hurrah, Lynette, you won't be disappointed. It's lots of fun and the cast are just wonderful! Do let us know your thoughts once you've been

I've seen this twice now and absolutely love it. I may even go again. The cast are fantastic and all seem to be having a whale of a time.

Went back for a third look and did not regret it.

But wait... there's more...

This excellent production is getting a DVD release!

http://bit.ly/SPcZJ

Excellent!

Wonderful! Wonderful! I know a DVD can never substitute for a live performance, but they can certainly provide lovely reminders. How exciting!

Had a great evening. It's a beautifully conceived, immaculately rehearsed and energetically performed production - the best I've yet seen of this play. Dominic Rowan's Touchstone and Tim McMullan's Jaques were a joy... but then, where do you stop when you start praising this cast?


So well directed by Thea Sharrock - intelligent and meticulous. Every last comic droplet was squeezed out of the play. I loved it.

Job

Have you been yet, Lynette?

Yes, she has.

http://www.whatsonstage.com/board/index.php?showtopic=8746

Thanks, Weez - just to add I think it was one of my best this year ..so far.

I totally agree, I think this is the best play I've seen this year. You leave the theatre on such a high! I'm going to see this for the third time next week to catch it before it ends.

I took a friend last time who hates Shakespeare and he loved every minute. I hope the DVD will manage to capture some of the brilliance of this production.

Has anyone queued for returns at the Globe? I want to take a friend to the final matinee but don't know how likely it is that we could get yard standing returns...

Do you need to worry if you are standing - there's loads of room? I suppose there is a limit to the numbers they allow for 'elf and safety but I'd be surprised if you couldn't get in.

I haven't got tickets yet. It's sold out - quite a lot of the performances have been, it's got very popular! The box office said to queue and so on but I have no idea what the likelihood of getting yard standing returns is.

There are some yard tickets available for midweek matinees next week, but other than that standing room for AYLI has sold out.

Yes, I know. I'm asking about returns.

The Globe website now has a page for the Opus Arte cinema/DVD/online releases of its 2009 productions:

http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/onfilm/

The Opus Arte site has a page for each of them including As You Like It:

http://www.opusartecinema.com/index.php?op...&Itemid=206

While the date for R&J has been confirmed, it seems we have to wait a bit longer for the others.

The DVD and Blu-ray of this 2009 Globe As You Like It will be released on 1 May. The R&J and LLL discs will be out on 1 April and 1 August respectively.

And it was nice to see Naomi Frederick's brief appearance in tonight's BBC4 docudrama On Expenses!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00r3qf4