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Leandra Ashton as Rosalind in "As You Like It"
Items needed to insure maximum enjoyment of Aquila Theatre Company’s “As You Like It” presented by Shakespeare Festival/LA…
A light jacket or sweater.
A scorecard.
Bring these, and allow the seven Aquila players to spirit you merrily off to the Forest of Arden where Rosalind, Orlando, Touchstone, Jacques and the gang are working out the evergreen conundrums of rural living, political justice and – this being a Shakespeare comedy – matters of love.
The warm clothing is necessary because a wind actually kicks steadily through the plaza of Our Lady Queen of Angels, first of two performance homes to SF/LA (the second is the South Coast Botanic Gardens in Palos Verdes, also outdoors).
And unless you know the play well, you might need a cheat sheet or synopsis (beyond what the program provides) since director Kenn Sabberton is employing seven players to fill out a play calling for more than twice the number of characters. For this remarkable and rather bare bones “As You Like It,” The New York University-based AT doubles (and triples) roles in ways rarely attempted. The same actress (Lucy Black) playing smitten shepherdess Phebe, country wench Audrey and the melancholy Jacques?
This economy of actors works not simply because Saberton’s players are versatile, nimble and seemingly inexhaustible, but also because the text has been trimmed and the actors sometimes make a game of the quickie role switch. When James Lavender wears the pink jockey cap, he’s the fool Touchstone; when clad in what looks like a soccer jersey (the costumes are largely contemporary), Lavender becomes the initially nasty older brother Oliver de Boys.
Only Leandra Ashton (as Rosalind), Richard Kidd (Orlando) and Vaishnavi Sharma (Celia) have single part duty, although it could be argued that in her male drag incarnation as Ganymede (which Rosalind dons to escape to Arden and later to teach Orlando how to woo), Ashton is every bit taking on another character.
Rosalind is one of the great roles, and Ashton embraces the testosterone aspects as well as the girly bits. The actress has a wonderfully warm “Oh, I like that” smile when she first lays eyes on Orlando, lays bitingly into Black’s Phebe when the shepherdess is rejecting shepherd Silvius (Damien Davis) and seems to enjoy the game of Woo School 101 that she is running. There’s a certain spur of the moment, I’m making this up as I go giddiness to this Rosalind’s machinations. This befits a production (and a play) in which everyone seems to be trying out a new accent, a new occupation, a new perspective on life.
Though she’s called Madam, Black’s Jacques also wears male clothes and saunters through the Forest of Arden more as a slightly dyspeptic philosopher than as a grumpy misanthrope. This incarnation is years away from Black’s take on simple Audrey or haughty Phebe. A tip of the hat also to Davis, credited with seven roles, all of them measurably different from each other. He’s in especially fine voice handling the guitar as the courtier Amiens.
Fashioned, as this production is, for touring, Sabberton and the production co designer Peter Meineck use little in the way of set pieces or props. Some strategically blown fall leaves usher us into Arden and a hay bale here or there along with some sheep noises do the rest. One might find more lush or opulent “As You Like It’s,” but good luck finding a production more transporting.
And kudos finally to SF/LA which, while not producing a production in house this summer, had the sense to bring in a really first rate offering to fill the slot.
“As You Like It” continues at 8 p.m. tonight through Sunday at the Cathedral Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple St. General admission is free (A non perishable canned food donation is recommended) and reserve tickets are available for $30. The production continues at 8 p.m. July 23-26 at the South Coast Botanic Garden, 26300 Crenshaw Blvd., Palos Verdes Estates. $15-$23. (213) 481-2273 www.freewillLA.org, www.Bardinthegarden.org.
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