As You Like It: Learning to Love in Shakespeare's Forest of Arden

As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare (1564-1616), written in 1599 and likely first performed that same year. Indeed, it is thought to be the inaugural show performed by Shakespeare's acting company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, at the newly built Globe Theatre. Although its literary merit has been questioned by some scholars, who point to its lack of plot, As You Like It continues to be frequently performed today and features the character of Rosalind, often regarded as one of Shakespeare's greatest heroines.

Background

As You Like It was Shakespeare's attempt at writing a pastoral play, a literary genre that was popular with Elizabethan theatre audiences in the 1580s and early '90s. Largely influenced by Sir Philip Sidney's poem Arcadia, pastorals romanticized country life, specifically that of a shepherd living off the land. A popular example of pastoral poetry is The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, one of the poems of Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), which begins:

Come live with me and be my love,

And we will all the pleasures prove,

That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,

Woods or steepy mountain yields.

It is quite easy to see why pastorals appealed to the literate and theatergoing crowds of London, many of whom likely fantasized about leaving the cramped, filthy, and often dangerous conditions of city life behind. In As You Like It, Shakespeare offers his own version of a pastoral paradise with his Forest of Arden, a magical place where snakes and lions dwell, bands of merry outlaws live off the land and pass the time with song, and young people can learn to fall in love (four couples get married at the end of the play, a large number even for a Shakespearean romantic comedy). The name of Shakespeare's paradise is derived both from his source, which takes place in the French forests of Ardennes, as well as from his personal life, as his mother's name was Mary Arden.

The story itself was adapted from the popular 1590 pastoral poem Rosalynd by Thomas Lodge, which provided Shakespeare with the basic ingredients for his own play – a heroine who disguises herself as a man, and the movement of the characters from city to country. Shakespeare expands the cast, originating the melancholic Jaques and clown Touchstone, and lowers the stakes, removing the more violent resolutions of Lodge's original work. Shakespeare's title also comes from Lodge, who, in the preface to his original Rosalynd, writes: "If you like it, so; and yet I will be yours in duty, if you be mine in favor" (quoted in Shapiro, 210).

Yet even as Shakespeare leans into the pastoral, he does not fail to criticize the genre's tendency to romanticize country life and love itself. The character Orlando, for example, enters the Forest of Arden lovesick for the beautiful Rosalind; indeed, he spends his time writing dreadful love poems and pinning them to trees. A classic Petrarchan lover, Orlando, has put Rosalind on a pedestal, something our heroine knows is an unsustainable form of love. When Orlando says he would die for his love of her, Rosalind – disguised as the shepherd Ganymede – grounds him with the words: "men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love". It is for this reason that scholar James Shapiro argues that the main conflict in As You Like It does not stem from the villainous Duke Frederick, who has usurped the dukedom and banished the protagonists, but rather from Orlando's own immature attitude toward love.

For this eschewing of the traditional pastoral ideals of poets like Sidney and Marlowe – and indeed of the intense kind of love found in Shakespeare's earlier work, Romeo and Juliet – Rosalind comes across as a special type of pastoral heroine, which is why literary scholar Harold Bloom considers her amongst Shakespeare's greatest creations. "I love Falstaff and Hamlet and Cleopatra as dramatic and literary characters," Bloom writes, "but would not want to encounter them in actuality; yet falling in love with Rosalind always makes me wish that she existed in our sub-literary realm…if Rosalind cannot please us, no one in Shakespeare or elsewhere in literature ever will" (204).

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In today's spotlight on David Tennant's theatre career, we'll feature 1997's production of Hurlyburly by David Rabe, and David's role as Mickey.

By 1997, David was coming off two years of successful theatre. In 1995 he'd been nominated for Best Supporting Actor in the MENTA Awards and Best Actor at the British Regional Theatre Awards for his role as Kenny in An Experienced Woman Gives Advice.

In 1996 he'd completed four theatre roles: Tom Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie at the Dundee Rep, and Touchstone in As You Like It, Jack Lane in The Herbal Bed, and Alexander Hamilton in The General From America in Stratford and London for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

He took a day off from The Glass Menagerie rehearsals to go to London to audition for Orlando in As You Like It, and while he didn't get that role, he did bag the role of Touchstone. Follow this link if you want to read most of an extensive essay he wrote about playing that part...while he was playing it!

David won rave reviews for all these roles, including a Theatre Management Award nomination for Best Actor for 'The Glass Menagerie.' His Royal Shakespeare Company performances were all sell-outs, and in particular, his portrayal of Touchstone was noted as a standout performance. And while David had played many previous theatre roles, up to that point Touchstone had been the longest he'd played any part. He inhabited the role of Touchstone for almost an entire year - from 18 April 1996 (his 25th birthday) to the run's close on 29 March 1997. During the run, he'd injured his ankle.

Also, keep in mind he was simultaneously doing his other roles in The Herbal Bed and The General From America! The General From America ran from July to October 1996 in Stratford and from February to April of 1997 in London; The Herbal Bed ran from May to September 1996 in Stratford, and from October 1996 to January 1997 in London.

He was a BUSY boy indeed!

His next role - as Mickey in David Rabe's blisteringly caustic play Hurlyburly, would take him for the first time to the West End's Queen's Theatre (now the Sondheim Theatre). A transfer of the Peter Hall Company's March to April 1997 production at the Old Vic, the Queen's production would run from August to November 1997.

There's a belief in the DT fandom that David played the role of Mickey in both runs - at the Old Vic and at the Queen's. That's false. The only three actors who transferred their roles from the Old Vic were Rupert Graves as Eddie, Andy Serkis as Phil, and Susannah Doyle as Bonnie. David replaced Daniel Craig (yes, THAT Daniel Craig!) as Mickey. At the Old Vic, Stephen Dillane had played Artie, Elizabeth McGovern had played Darlene, and Kelly MacDonald (yes, THAT Kelly MacDonald!) was Donna. At the Queen's, Mark Benton played Artie, Jenny Seagrove played Darlene, and Jessica Watson was Donna.

Photos of Hurlyburly from its Old Vic run

Weirdly, neither Graves nor Seagrove were supposed to star in the Queen's run. Ethan Hawke and Patsy Kensit were!

But Hawke - who would've made his London stage debut - walked out after a day's rehearsal and Kensit followed the next day. So Graves and Seagrove stepped in.

According to its programme, Hurlyburly was originally scheduled to begin previews on 14 August 1997. But because of its casting problems, it seems it began its run a week later, on 21 August? Yet newspapers give dates anywhere from 13 August to 28 August. So I'm really not certain of the exact date.

It was performed with American accents, too!

The director of Hurlyburly was Wilson Milam. Doctor Who fans will recognize the name, as Milam later went on to direct 2003's Scream of the Shalka - a well-known series, one where David featured in an uncredited cameo role as the Caretaker!

Hurlyburly ran for 2 hours and 40 minutes and began at 8pm on Mondays through Saturdays. There was one interval. Its weekday Wednesday matinee began at 3pm, and its Saturday matinee began at 4pm. Tickets ran anywhere from £7.50 to £24.

But what's Hurlyburly about? Set in the Hollywood Hills during the excesses of the 80s, it centers on divorced Hollywood casting directors Eddie and Mickey, and their associates Phil and Artie. In six scenes across the space of twelve months, they hurtle towards self-destruction.

These men hate everything: themselves, their friends, the movie industry, and especially women. Their language pours out in crude torrents of hostility and violence. They snort lines, drink, mistreat women, and shout at each other. A LOT. The women in their lives are just there to use and discard. Their girlfriends are annoying props, other women are sex objects or boring and pitiful, they've abandoned their children, and their ex-wives are the focus of undying and vicious disdain.

The production got rave reviews, and Rupert Graves was nominated for the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor. David also got great reviews! His Mickey made an impression as a "mocking and maddeningly self-possessed," "self-controlled, empty" and "cynical outsider". He thought himself a charming God's gift to women type, but had a "detachment that becomes chilling."

Given the amount of photographs taken from the Old Vic run of Hurlyburly, you'd think there would be more photos taken from its Queen's run featuring David. But…no? There's only this one from the programme, and one of him in a blue shirt:

Now for some Trivia Time! During Hurlyburly's run, its assisant director, Charlotte ­Bond, asked David for a favor. She was going to be involved in a play later that year at the Edinburgh Festival called Tamagotchi Heaven and she wondered if he'd be willing to film a small cameo role for the piece.

He agreed, filmed it in about an hour, and promptly forgot about it - until a 2008 Chain Reaction radio interview he did with Catherine Tate reminded him of it. Because she'd SEEN it, and somehow recognized him from it....even though they hadn't yet met! Here's the interview where they speak of it (it's 2 minutes in):

The way you ultimately feel about Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of William Shakespeare's As You Like It depends on how digestible you find the play. It contains some of the Bard's most memorable lines but this presentation makes some bad calls along the way.

Set in Japan, the story begins with a coup. Having taken over, Duke Frederick (Brian Blessed) exiles his older brother but allows his niece, Rosalind (Bryce Dallas Howard) to stay. Rosalind is best friends with Celia (Romola Garai), Federick's daughter. When his patience with them runs out, they run away to the forest of Arden, accompanied by the court jester Touchstone (Alfred Molina). In the woods, they find safety and eventually, love.

I enjoy most of Shakespeare but this play isn't among my favorites, which is fine because this film decides to change certain details. Unfortunately, the changes are most puzzling. Why is the story now set in Japan instead of France? It's not like Japanese actors have been cast in any important roles. This is most problematic when we look at Rosalind. Bryce Dallas Howard is talented but when her character disguises herself as a man, you're not convinced for a second. The idea of anyone being fooled is ludicrous. This would've been a perfect opportunity to cast a Japanese actress. You could've played on the culture's views of cross-dressing or poked fun at the white characters being unable to identify masculine/feminine features in Asian faces but it's a prime opportunity director Kenneth Branagh fails to take advantage of.

The original dialogue is preserved, which makes the film enjoyable to simply listen to. On DVD, you can turn on the subtitles and get your money’s worth of this script. It'll allow you to clearly understand everything being said and you won’t miss a single word of that witty dialogue. There are many memorable speeches and several lines will have you exclaiming “Oh! THAT’S where that came from?!” Yes, the language is archaic but you can still understand what people are saying, particularly when you get to see the actions that match them.

The story is light as air and idealistic. As You Like It believes in true love at first sight and fully embraces comical situations that stem from disguises and cross-dressing. Some might call it unrealistic but by being consistent throughout, it feels natural. Either you can get past this type of storytelling or you can't. I could, for the most part. While Branagh was altering the setting and inserting a new prologue (along with trimming down some of the dialogue for pacing and brevity) the ending could've been expanded upon a bit to make it feel like less like it comes out of nowhere.

Everyone should see a rendition of As You Like It at some point. Is this one the definitive adaptation? Not quite. It stays true to its source and there's a lot of talent on-screen but its strength lies in the source material, not the treatment it's been given. (On DVD, April 25, 2015)

The Jolly Joker

Touchstone