As You Like It review

In a forest of towering, oversized hat stands, under a canopy of gently fluttering dresses, a band of exiles, lovers, fools and poets have found freedom and forgiveness.

With its flimsy, whimsical plot, fitful pacing and pat ending, Shakespeare’s As You Like It has often been celebrated more for its resonant themes than for its story. Northern Broadsides’ new version – its first fully realised production since a 2020 tour of JM Barrie’s Quality Street was cut short by the pandemic – is a playful re-evaluation of the play’s message as one of radical kindness and uninhibited self-expression.

Director Laurie Sansom sets a listless pace here, but there’s plenty of vivid set-pieces to keep the show from stalling. Lively crowd scenes populate mythic forests and ducal palaces alike with scurrying servants and bustling shepherds. Explosive wrestling bouts erupt with satisfyingly physical grappling overseen by veteran fight director Bethan Clark, while a sultry dream sequence sees stag-masked hunters writhing and dancing about the space.

Heading a committed if uneven cast, non-binary actor EM Williams makes a mercurial Rosalind, capably running rings around everyone they encounter with quick wit and steely determination, but revealing plenty of warmth and vulnerability in private moments, giggling and sighing with overflowing emotion.

Beside them, Isobel Coward gives a quietly nuanced performance as a loyal yet downhearted Celia. An early scene makes it clear that her feelings for Rosalind go far deeper than platonic affection, and she spends much of the play stifling meaningful glances, silently coming to terms with her unrequited love. 

Shaban Dar’s Orlando, while tentative, at least seems genuinely likeable. Here, he’s depicted as gentle, open-hearted and quick to outgrow the aggression he learned from years of mistreatment by his elder brother. Meanwhile, cabaret performer Joe Morrow provides heaps of heart and energy as a glammed-up Touchstone - all irreverent asides and twisty turns of phrase delivered with wry finesse.

The show benefits from an evocative score by composer Robert Bentall. Wistful cascades of strings flutter over fuzzy guitar riffs creating melodic tensions that fittingly reflect the contradictions of a play where exile can mean freedom and a dangerous wilderness can also be a bucolic idyll.

Designer EM Parry’s lavish, imaginative costumes form a real centrepiece in the production. An intentionally chaotic clash of high-vis outdoor wear and couture confections, the designs feature full-length furs, exploded puffer jackets and deconstructed period costumes shaped to frame glimpses of the wearer’s body. As the characters try on disguises and experiment with identities, their outfits become ever more elaborate and expressionistic: mingling military uniform and bridal wear, Elizabethan ruffs and welly boots, borrowing from traditionally male and female styles to explore new and unrestrained possibilities.