As You Like It, directed by Ralph Fiennes, at Theatre Royal Bath – review

One stand-out theme of Ralph Fiennes’ Theatre Royal Bath season has been the women delivering stand-out performances. After Miranda Raison’s graceful glow in the West End-bound Grace Pervades, As You Like It blooms with three radiant turns in Gloria Obianyo, Amber James, and Harriet Walter, illuminating a production that proves Fiennes is ripening into a director of rare delicacy, as attuned to the spirit of a play as to the power of his performance.

He directs with a light hand, more gardener than architect, clearing space for his actors to flower. Aside from two brief videos at the beginning and end, showing images of nature ravaged and restored, he keeps intervention minimal. He understands the music of Shakespeare: beginning slowly, letting the audience’s ear adjust, then gently quickening the pulse until the verse runs hot with life.

Thus, Obianyo’s Rosalind unfolds. In her uncle’s court, she is hushed, hesitant, her brilliance hidden. But once she slips into Arden, donning Ganymede’s disguise, her speech quickens, her wit glitters, and she claims her place as Shakespeare’s most commanding heroine. Obianyo – an Ian Charleson Award winner – delivers lines as though plucked fresh from the forge. Her Ganymede is no drag act but a revelation, a masculine thread already woven into her nature. Her “lessons” to Orlando brim with restless energy, until word becomes touch, restraint melts, and passion breaks forth in a kiss that eroticises the stage.

Yet it is James’ Celia who lingers most vividly in memory. Too often a shadow to Rosalind’s radiance, here she is fire in her own right: her arched brows catching the comedy, her sly asides sharpening the wit, her physicality blossoming when love finally claims her. This Celia is no echo but an equal, a performance so alive one longs for Shakespeare to have penned her another play.

At the far end of the spectrum stands Walter’s Jacques, a portrait carved by years of craft. She delivers the “Seven Ages of Man” while idly biting an apple, ticking off each stage with her fingers. Beneath the melancholy, though, glows an ember of kindness, explaining why Arden’s exiles keep her close. Her meditation on the wounded deer folds seamlessly into the production’s quiet hymn to nature and balance. It is a performance of wisdom, autumnal yet warm.

Not every note rings true – Dylan Moran’s Touchstone strains for laughs within his Irish comic schtick – but there is fine work elsewhere: Patrick Robinson lending weight to the dual Dukes, Charlie Rowe bringing boyish ardour to Orlando, Paul Jesson tender dignity to Adam. Bob Crowley’s designs and Roland Horvath’s video conjure Arden as a place of gentle wonder, while Ilan Eshkeri’s folk-inflected score gifts the company a jubilant curtain jig.

This As You Like It is a reminder that Shakespeare does not always need the director’s hand to steer. Sometimes it is enough to trust the text, the verse, and the players. Here, in Arden’s green world, that faith bears rich fruit.