At last, an “As You Like It” you can easily like.
Shakespeare’s dashing, gender-bending pastoral comedy, best known for the line “all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women in it merely players,” is set in a forest where romantic playahs, er, players, pine for those who pine not back. Until Hymen, the Roman god of marriage, swoops in and couples them all off neatly and happily.
At the center of this hormonal tempest is Rosalind, the largest female role (by line count) in Shakespeare’s canon. The exiled beauty, pretending to be a boy to avoid a murderous uncle, tutors the clueless object of her affection, Orlando, in the ways of love.
Directors often muck this play up by adding unnecessary concept layers and by butching up a disguised Rosalind with so much testosterone that she loses all femininity.
TheatreWorks’ new staging in Colorado Springs is notable for its simplicity and, most impressively, for a Rosalind who’s as easy to like as a boy as she is as a girl.
If the world is indeed a stage, then a stage ought to suffice to stage this play. Director Murray Ross and set designer Michael Stansbery rely only on lighting, music and a transparent mesh tree to convey the no-frills Arden forest. And here, that’s plenty. Colorado newcomer Jane Noseworthy does the rest.
Her refreshing Rosalind is playful and completely winning. Her stage chemistry is as comfortable with her best girlfriend, Celia (a perfectly partnered Kaitlyn Riordan), as with Orlando (Nick Henderson).
Putting Rosalind in overalls and a reverse ballcap was a regrettable choice, but in a nice counter, nothing is done to hide Noseworthy’s real, dangling blond locks — because they’re still several inches shorter than Henderson’s.
Ross’ straightforward approach doesn’t try to convey the sweeping class conflict of more grandiose stagings. He’s telling a love story, or four. And he plays to his strengths by having at his center an actor who’s all heart. Noseworthy’s Rosalind is wise, but not shrewd. She is, really, just a girly girl in far over her head with an uncontrollable but necessarily hidden crush. Noseworthy is so clear, her gender commentaries often draw cheers. At the same time, it’s heartbreaking watching her grow more jealous . . . of herself. It all makes for a very human comedy.
“As You Like It” also calls for more music than any other Shake- spearean play, and the folk-y acoustic score here comes from a young guitar strummer named Brian McClure who plays the musical Lord Amiens (and doubles as frontman for a cover band called Head Full of Zombies. Which is just cool.). McClure joins the ranks of bands like Barenaked Ladies who have set Shakespeare poems such as “Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind” to a contemporary sound.
The support performances run the gamut from introductory to eye- opening. That’s usually the case at TheatreWorks, a professional company that’s fully integrated into the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Here, local actors mix fluidly with an ever-changing roster of students and professional thesps from Denver and New York. Particularly impressive are student Ben Bonenfant as love-struck shepherd Silvius, and, in the most difficult role by far, David Pinckney as a melancholy French philosopher who, in lesser hands, might grind the mirth into the dirt.
There’s also a gasp-inducing wrestling match that was so well-staged, you might think ambulances were surely called to Sunday’s matinee.
This staging’s only drawbacks are its unnecessary three-hour length (the Colorado Shakespeare Fest’s far more ambitious 2006 staging came in a half-hour quicker) and the antics of a fool so over the top that Robert Rais would win the Olympic pole- vault gold by 10 feet. He’s a charmer, but his mischief, spanning vaudevillian to hip-hop, is completely unreined, often pulling the audience’s focus from the primary story.
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
“As You Like It”
Gender comedy Presented in repertory with “Venus and Adonis” by TheatreWorks, 3955 Cragwood Drive, Colorado Springs. Written by Shakespeare. Directed by Murray Ross. 3 hours. Through Sept. 7. 2 p.m. Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday, times then vary. $15-$25. 719-262-3232 or .
This weekend’s theater openings
“Allied Witches’ Presidential Election Convention 2008” The Mercury Cafe’s theatrical witches poke their broomsticks in the belly of our democratic process. Through Aug. 29. Mercury Motley Players, 2199 California St., 303 294-9258 or
“The Eyes of Babylon” A U.S. Marine tells how he used the military’s ban on gays as a way out from the war in Iraq he came to believe was morally corrupt. Through Sept. 14. At the New Denver Civic Theatre, 721 Santa Fe Drive, 303-777-3292 or and here’s
“Forever Plaid” A 1950s all-male singing group killed in a car crash gets one more shot at stardom. Through Jan. 4. Nonesuch Theatre, 216 Pine St., Fort Collins, 970-224-0444 or
“Home Away From” An aging screenwriter and an aspiring actress rent rooms in a Los Angeles house where the boundaries between race, politics, Hollywood and reality blur. Through Sept. 27. Brooks Center Arts, 1400 Williams St.
“Honky Tonk Laundry” In this musical tribute to Nashville, two country girls join forces and turn their laundromat into a boot-scooting- boogie honky-tonk. Through Sept. 7. Lake Dillon Theatre Company, 176 Lake Dillon Drive, 970-513-9386 or
“Jekyll & Hyde” The moody, mirrored musical look at Dr. Jekyll and his diabolical dark side on the streets of 19th-century London. Through Oct. 12. Union Colony Dinner Theatre, 802 Ninth Ave., Greeley, 970-352-2900 or
“Manhattan’s Last Fight” A Kansas boxer turns his back on his promising career to reclaim his childhood sweetheart, Skinny. A new comedy by Denver’s Jonson Kuhn. Through Sept. 7. Crossroads Theatre, 2590 Washington St., 303-832-0929 or . To read a 12-page script sample,
“A Streetcar Named Desire” Tennessee Williams’ 1947 Pulitzer winner about the violent culture clash between Blanche DuBois, a pretentious, fading relic of the Old South, and her blue-collar brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. Through Sept. 21. Vintage Theatre, 2119 E. 17th Ave., 303-839-1361 or
“Why Do Fools Fall In Love?” At a bachelorette party, friends rediscover the strength of friendship. A nostalgic, lighthearted musical filled with ’60s love songs. Through Sept. 20. Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre, 1025 Grand Ave., Grand Lake, 970-627-3421 or .
Compiled by John Moore
Complete theater listings
Go to our complete list of every currently running production in Colorado, including summaries, run dates, addresses, phones and links to every company’s home page.
This week’s podcast: Running Lines with . . .
This week, Denver Post theater critic John Moore talks with young who recently graduated from Harvard and has come home to originate and stage “Show up for Democracy,” the first educational outreach production ever presented by the handicapped theater company known as PHAMALy. It is an original, nonpartisan one-act musical just in time for the Democratic National Convention here in Denver. For information, call 303-575-0005. Recorded Aug. 20, 2008. Run time: 19 minutes.
To access the podcast, click on the underlined link above and you will taken to a miniplayer. There, click on the play button, and the podcast will begin, with no downloading necessary. Or, right-click on the “download,” option, to save a copy to your own desktop, and you’ll have more control over playback.
