As You Like It at the RSC’s Holloway Garden Theatre – review

Three years ago, just over a year into that thing nobody seems to talk about anymore, the RSC came up with a neat strategy for bringing back punters to the theatre: they staged an open-air production of The Comedy of Errors in a specially-built amphitheatre in the gardens next to their Stratford HQ.

Now the temporary structure is back, this time with a slightly different purpose and hosting another of Shakespeare’s more light-hearted efforts. This version of As You Like It has been filleted to around 80 straight-through minutes with the express aim of enticing families to a ‘taster’ of the Bard.

On this showing, there might be a strong argument for some fiercer cutting in the main house. The play remains resolutely Shakespeare’s bucolic tale of wronged dukes, cross-dressing daughters and randy shepherds, while simultaneously giving it a healthy dose of pace, charm and clarity.

Under Brendan O’Hea’s crisp direction, there’s little room for reflection or delay as characters whizz on and off stage through a variety of doors and exits, many scenes pared to a mere handful of lines before being despatched. Yes, there are moments when the relentless churn reaches almost comical proportions, but there’s no denying the zest of the cast and the forward propulsion of the narrative. Yet O’Hea manages to steer on the right side of confusion, keeping the various strands clear and accessible throughout.

Even the big speeches survive the scissors, including a lugubrious “Seven Ages of Man” from Trevor Fox’s Geordie Jaques – never one to miss an opportunity to bring everybody down. He’s neatly offset by Duncan Wisbey’s music-hall Touchstone and Susannah van den Berg’s sweetly inept Audrey, but it’s not all about the lower orders. The aptly named Peter Dukes is suitably noble as the exiled Duke Senior, with Chris Nayak making the most of his heavily chopped usurping brother Frederick.

At the heart of any As You Like It are Rosalind and Orlando, and here the production finds its emotional centre in the hands of Letty Thomas and Luke Brady, who appears only mildly hindered by having one foot in a cast. Separately they shine, Thomas’s Rosalind working beautifully with her cousin Celia – a vivid turn from Christina Tedders – and Brady giving his Orlando a well-judged combination of cynicism and boyish innocence. Together, they have a spark and connection that warms even the chilliest August afternoon.

Designer Liam Bunster has created an ingenious curved set that helps with the multifarious overhearings and entrances, while Catherine Jayes’s music resonates delightfully with O’Hea’s vision for the show, performed impeccably by the talented cast themselves on everything from violins and saxophones to trombone and improvised percussion.

While it capably serves its purpose as an entry into the world of the Bard, it’s a fine production of the play in its own right and completely deserves its presentation under the banner of the RSC. This is no simplistic dumbing down: this is proper Shakespeare.