Review: As You Like It at the Scottish Rite Theater
If that sounds like a series of backhanded compliments, there's a reason: while there's nothing to not like about Beth Burns' direction and the performance of As You Like It on the Scottish Rite stage, there's also little to be found that's unique or genuinely interesting about it. The production is steeped in some approximation of traditionalism (theater in Shakespeare's time didn't have drop-down sets, and the language still occasionally sounds silly in American accents), but it comes at the expense of freshness.
Which isn't the worst thing in the world. Shakespeare, after all, suffers under reinterpretations that strive too hard to break the mold. Faux-radical companies from the early 70's to today still come up with ideas like, Let's doHamlet—but with midgets! and audiences are left, between eye-rolls, to wonder what ever happened to just putting on a show competently.
And that's the word that springs to mind when watching Burns' production. Competent. The costumes are appropriately poofy, and there's never a moment in which the actors seem outmatched by the script. There's the occasional anachronistic site gag, as in the scene in which Charles the Wrestler (Casey Weed), grappling with Orlando (Scott Daigle), is bested by a wedgie that exposes his heart-covered boxer shorts, and such moments tend to elicit a surprised laugh from the audience. And an audience amused by the sight of funny contemporary underwear in a Shakespeare play is the sort of audience that likely doesn't object to a performance that, more often than not, feels like pastiche.
It's not the sort of theater audiences are meant to love, but not every piece intends to be. Some work seems destined to deliver classic work in a way that runs little risk of offending the sort of audiences who make a point to watch classic works. As You Like It may not reinvent the wheel—or even do much to challenge the surface interpretation of one of Shakespeare's most-performed comedies—but even critics of the bard maintain that this play, in particular, is intended as a crowd-pleaser. It hardly seems fair, with this in mind, to hold that against the Scottish Rite production. The wheel doesn't always need reinventing, so long as it keeps rolling along.
As You Like It runs through August 30th at the Scottish Rite Theater.
