As You Like It (RSC)

After the bloodshed and betrayals of the Histories cycle, RSC artistic director Michael Boyd clearly needed to cheer himself up a little. Hence As You Like It, his first production for the company since he oversaw that epic decimation of British royalty, and also his first work with the RSC’s new long ensemble, who started their two-year-plus run with David Farr’s take on The Winter’s Tale a couple of weeks ago.

Boyd has clearly had a lot of fun putting together this lighter work, the forest slowly creeping into the set as the various storylines swing into action and Katy Stephens’ charismatic Rosalind is banished to the Forest of Arden, only to be followed soon after by Jonjo O’Neill’s rather bland Orlando.

It’s Stephens who helps keep the play moving along swiftly, really letting loose once she dons her Ganymede disguise and gets Orlando to woo her. She’s aided by two fine comic turns, the first being Richard Katz’s Touchstone, whose make-up makes him look like he peered into one of those joke telescopes with black paint around the eyepiece. Mastering both physical and verbal comedy, he’s the whirlwind to Forbes Masson’s gloomy cloud, looking like a goth Bill Bailey as he casually saunters around the stage and delivers a few withering put-downs.

Still, an excellent cast can’t gloss over the play’s lazier writing, especially the rushed happy ending where Sandy Neilson’s frightful Duke suddenly has a religious conversion offstage and everyone is allowed to return to the court.

It’s not all frolicking in the forest, though; Boyd keeps the visual design rather sombre, reflected in the court’s blacker-than-black costumes, and there’s a pleasingly freaky dream sequence where Mariah Gale’s sleeping Celia is surrounded by cast members brandishing horns.

Yet you can’t quite shake the feeling that Boyd is coasting, waiting until his next big project comes around the corner. As a showcase for the company’s new ensemble, As You Like It is undoubtedly a success. As a stand-alone production, though, it’s nothing to get too excited about.

- Robert Paulson