As you Like It
There’s little not to like of Theatricum Botanicum’s post-Civil war staging of the Bard’s madcap pastoral playground “As You Like It.” The rustic outdoor amphitheater nestled in the Topanga Canyon’s sloping hillside provides a charming atmosphere for the cast of frolicking outsiders seeking sanctuary in the Forest of Arden.
Artistic Director Ellen Geer and Melora Marshall team up to direct this uplifting comedy centered around blindingly love-sick wooers “that makes the world full of ill-favor’d children.” Lightly sprinkling homespun nuances with fuzzy accents, colorful garb, and washer board melodies, the post-Civil war framework is merely a suggestive treatment handled with kid gloves. It does, however, lend some credence to the shifting social order of displaced vagabonds that call the forest home.
Enmity between brothers turns the woods of Arden into an encampment of royal squatters. An usurped Duke Senior (Thad Geer) and his band of merry men make the most of it, Orlando (Mike Peebler), a natural nobleman escapes to it, and Rosalind (Willow Geer) and Celia (Samara Frame) accompanied by their lackadaisical clown, Touchstone (Gerald Rivers) adapt to the idyllic court of nature. After all the gender-bending foils, the infatuated fawning, and the frivolity of kin and friends, everyone ends up matched up, makes up and moves back to their original seats of power.
The cast brings a sprightly energy to their staging, seemingly playing from the balls of their feet, but landing their roles solidly. Whether nimbly bouncing onstage or swinging from the trees, the depth and breadth of Theatricum Botanicum’s stage and upstage footpaths are well mined, affording a richer vitality to the play’s woodland setting. Thad Geer as Duke Senior simply breathes in his role with a graceful assurance. Gerald Rivers enhances simple but savvy Touchstone with sensitive complexity and becomes a powerhouse duo with Maureen Ganz as ditzy, lap straddling Audrey. Willow Geer, Mike Peebler, and Samara Frame give capable performances.
The color-blind and gender-blind (along with the animal-friendly) casting of this production should be heartily commended. Earnestine Phillips embodies the melancholy Jaques with a heartening veracity that is bold and new. She can be easily accused of stealing the show, and by gum, let her. Her delivery of “All the world’s a stage…” is keenly poignant and is met with deserved and spontaneous applause.
There’s a bow wow in this production with Trey the Dog, and like most live animals onstage he’s a crowd pleaser.
It seems fitting that Theatricum Botanicum chose this play as their summer season opener. Its theme of a return to nature is good advice for everyone in this city, if only to escape for a couple of hours.
“As You Like It”
The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum
1419 North Topanga Canyon Blvd.
Topanga, CA 90290
(Midway between PCH & the 101)
Runs through Sept 28
Pre-show discussion: Sunday, July 6 at 2pm
Scheduled performances are as follows:
June 29
July 6, 13, 20, 27
Aug 3, 10, 17, 24, 31
Sept 7, 21, & 28
PH: 310-455-3723
Email: www.theatricum.com