It took a little longer than usual for Jonathan Groff’s Rosalind and Fisayo Akinade’s Celia to reach the Forest of Arden on the opening night of the RSC’s new As You Like It. A technical malfunction led to a substantial mid-show delay as the tyrannical duke’s bleak, monochrome fortress stubbornly refused to rise from the stage and yield to the freedom of the forest. When the verdant glade finally did emerge — thanks to sterling work from the backstage crew — Celia’s cry “to liberty and not to banishment” prompted warm laughter and applause.
It’s not an experience the company will be keen to repeat. Yet, curiously, this mishap not only reasserted the camaraderie of live theatre, it chimed with both the drama and director Daniel Evans’ joyous, deft and deeply felt reading. Transformation is at its heart. Even the forest has undergone a conversion here: it’s not an assembly of trees, but, in Anisha Fields’ gorgeous design, a stretch of breeze-buffeted, tussocky Welsh countryside. Glorious a cappella renditions of Welsh-language hymns (arranged by Theo Jamieson) bathe the action in “hiraeth” — that deep, nostalgic sense of longing. And while the all-male cast brings a playful, queer element to the text’s exploration of love, even that feels part of something broader. It’s a show driven by the search for home, in its largest sense — the place where you belong.
That is emphasised by a striking opening that shows Groff’s Rosalind brutally manhandled by a group of besuited courtiers, reminding us that while her father has been physically usurped, she has also been displaced. She and her beloved cousin Celia have no place in this oppressive environment where tough talk and wrestling matches define power. As the two flee to find refuge in the wilds where the banished duke presides over an alternative, more liberal way of life, Celia’s assumed name — “Aliena” — emerges strongly.
Groff and Akinade bring a rich, complex chemistry to their relationship, pitched uncertainly between friendship and love and, as so often, the deepest dynamic in the play. Groff’s Rosalind has beguiling wit and charisma, but also a mischievous pinch of arrogance. Akinade, meanwhile, is superb, intricately charting Celia’s devotion and dismay as Orlando takes centre stage in Rosalind’s affections. The freedom Rosalind experiences in assuming her new persona contrasts with Celia’s growing uncertainty about where she stands.
Throughout, the all-male cast brings a subtly different slant to the many questions about identity and gender already rolling through Shakespeare’s great play. Here it’s less about societal norms for men and women; more about finding out what fits you and being accepted. That search for home plays out in multiple ways: in Elliot Barnes-Worrell’s troubled Orlando, in the pairing of Tim Preston’s prissy Phoebe and Edward Judge’s sweetly lovelorn shepherd Silvius, and in Richard McCabe’s lonely Jaques, whose final departure in search of spiritual guidance feels quietly genuine.
The genius of As You Like It is that the play itself is so supple — it can emerge as sunny, dark or dappled. Few stagings catch it all, and this one loses some of the subtle explorations of power and parenting. But that feels like a necessary sacrifice in this fresh, gently moving production, packed with wonderful performances and keenly observant about the universal need for love and acceptance.
★★★★☆
To November 7, rsc.org.uk