It was heartening to see the relatively substantial size of the crowd that had gathered for the opening night performance of As You Like It, at Royal Palm Beach’s Common Park. This charming production, the Shakespearean staple, is a project of the Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival, which has now been bringing Palm Beach County audiences accessible outdoor performances of the Bard’s work for over 30 years.
For the past five, the organization has been able to bring its flagship summer production to Common Park for an extra weekend of performances in addition to its main run in Jupiter’s Carlin Park, located around 40 minutes north. This year, they’re expanding their presence in the area even further with the addition of the production at hand as an additional winter show, a welcome development considering how rarely other professional companies are brave enough to take on something Shakespearean.
Running for only one weekend, this stripped-down version of the show is also a departure from their summer productions, which typically feature fairly large casts and fairly elaborate production values. And while some light doubling is par for the course in professional productions of As You Like It, this variation takes economy to the extreme in utilizing only six actors to bring to life the show’s 20+ characters.
Between costume changes, alterations in the actors’ demeanors, and hints in the dialogue, it isn’t too difficult to keep track of who’s who—or at least I could pretty much follow along without refreshing my memory with a Sparknotes summary beforehand.
However, I can see how the task might be substantially more difficult for a newcomer to the material. Especially given that one central element of the plot involves two main characters who take on new identities to disguise themselves, it may not be entirely obvious when a character is pretending to be someone else in-story and when an actor is switching characters altogether.
Otherwise, though, the frequent role-switching added a fun chaotic feel that fit well with the playful energy and casual vibe of the outdoor production. In a way, it’s also an entirely on-theme way to present a play in which the slipperiness of identity is a major defining theme—especially when it comes to gender.
If you weren’t aware, only men were permitted to perform theatrically back in Shakespeare’s day, meaning that all of his female roles were basically originated by men in drag. Effectively, this made leading lady Rosalind’s in-story assumption of the male identity “Ganymede” a double deception in which two layers of cross-dressing cancel themselves out.
This time around, it’s the show’s three female actors who are mostly tasked with taking on traditionally male roles, such as in actress Madi Fernandez’s amusing turn as flamboyant messenger Le Beau. And along with elegantly taking on their respective lead roles as Rosalind and Celia, actresses Lee Ritter and Sara Grant also get to don fake mustaches and affect cartoonishly deep voices to portray a pair of male Foresters to great comedic effect.
It’s interesting to contrast Ritter’s exaggerated performance of masculinity in moments like these with the more understated way in which she transforms as Rosalind into her character’s male alter-ego Ganymede. Looking at this aspect of this 400+ year old play through modern millennial eyes, I found myself contemplating contemporary ideas about the fluidity of gender in how naturally and confidently Rosalind inhabits this cross-gender identity, which the other characters accept unquestioningly until she reveals her masquerade.
Actor Tristen Hooks, whose biggest role is as Rosalind’s rogueish love interest Orlando, also gets the chance to cross gender lines by playing the simple shepherdess Audrey in an even more unconventional and delightful manner, altering only his voice as he holds up a small puppet meant to represent her. In these scenes, Audrey is joined by a puppet version of Touchstone (otherwise played on a normal human scale by actor Daryl Willis) that admirably replicates his distinctive costume in miniature.
Plenty of other whimsical touches in Penny Williams’ costuming help set different characters apart from one another. These include a pirate hat for Willis’s puffed-up and pompous Duke Senior and a gold cloak for Fernandez’s ethereal Hymen, an eleventh hour visitor from the heavens who arrives to orchestrate a satisfying happy ending.
