David Melville and Daisy Tichenor (Photo by Reynaldo Macias)
Reviewed by F. Kathleen Foley
Independent Shakespeare Co.
Through September 1
RECOMMENDED
While cleaning out his parents’ home in England, David Melville unearthed a cache of 1930s—era 78’s. To his surprise, he found that a popular crooner of that era had recorded, among his hits, the Springtime song and a swing version of Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind, both from As You Like It.
That discovery inspired Melville to model his current production of Shakespeare’s play on the popular screwball comedies of that period. His offbeat approach, which features a live band, is reflected not only in his direction but in the mix of original music and Elizabeth Cox’s whimsical costume design, with modern touches from the UK’s Anarcho-Dandyism movement (at least, that’s what it says in Melville’s program notes. You figure it out).
What results is a solid charmer for this annual outing of Independent Shakespeare Co.’s free Shakespeare in the Park series, which has been overseen for 20 years and counting by founder Melville and his wife, artistic director Melissa Chalsma.
The current playing area — a compact dell at the top of the Old Zoo in Griffith Park — suffices as a stopgap measure for this in-the-round staging until the company’s new stage near the park’s old bear caves is completed. While the dell is a pleasant location in the interim, it is acoustically problematic. Tracking the actors’ voices as they enter from the surrounding hillsides can be challenging.
Students of gender politics could do worse than study Shakespeare. Crossdressing — a device by which Shakespeare’s heroines gain agency, as well as safety from predacious males — is a common device in Shakespeare’s comedies, and As You Like It is no exception.
After Rosalind (Jacqueline Misaye) falls afoul of her uncle, Duke Frederick (Pierre Adeli), who usurped her father, she finds herself banished by the cruel Duke on pain of death. Forced to flee, she is joined by her cousin and lifelong friend Celia (Bukola Ogunmola), Frederick’s daughter. The two women, accompanied by the court Fool, Touchstone (Melville), take refuge in the Forest of Arden, where Rosalind’s Duke father and a small coterie of his loyal courtiers dwell.
For protection, Rosalind dons boy’s attire, which complicates matters when she encounters Orlando (Jack Lancaster) in the forest. The two had met briefly back in their kingdom, where Rosalind had fallen hard for Orlando, who’d been similarly lovestruck. He too is on the run, fleeing from his murderous older brother Oliver (Brent Charles), who has plotted his death. Coincidentally, both end up in Arden, and when the “boy,” Rosalind, now known as Ganymede, offers to give Orlando lessons in wooing, the homoerotic sparks fly.
Romantic hijinks involving various rustics and shepherdesses revolve around this storyline. Meanwhile, the melancholic Jacques (William Elsman) delivers the Ages of Man speech – leavening the general silliness with that famous reflection on impermanence and mortality.
Melville’s lighthearted intentions are manifest from the first scenes, which take place in a wrestling ring (pre-show, Melville enlists audience volunteers to compete onstage). Most amusing are the horny interactions between Touchstone and goat girl Audrey (Daisy Tichenor), who can’t keep their hands off one another.
The action often reaches levels of pure wackiness, as when Audrey sings an original song about scooping goat poop, and she and Touchstone retreat into the audience to grope one another on a borrowed blanket. It all adds up to a humorous and innovative production, a summer evening of pure fun — just past the bear caves.
The Old Zoo in Griffith Park, Los Angeles. Wed.—Sun., 7 p.m., thru Sept. 1. Free, but reservations required. www.iscla.org Running time: two hours and 50 minutes with one an intermission.
