RSC's All-Male As You Like It Is a Ravishing Triumph Despite Opening-Night Halt

The Royal Shakespeare Company's new all-male production of As You Like It opened at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon on 7 October — and was paused for well over an hour by a technical failure at the Forest of Arden reveal. The hitch, according to the Guardian's review, did not sink the evening. The verdict: "a ravishing staging, with stunning visual effects."

Director Daniel Evans assembles a fine cast led by Jonathan Groff, known for Hamilton, in a production that includes a WWE-style wrestling match, playful eroticism and what the review calls "an exquisite production."

What happens between court and forest?

The play pivots on Celia's line to Rosalind, the exile who finds freedom disguised as a man: "To liberty, and not to banishment." The Guardian identifies it as a key statement in Shakespeare's transformative, gender-bending pastoral comedy, spoken just before the usurping Duke Frederick's court gives way to the romance of the Forest of Arden.

The court scenes offer little comedy or light. Evans builds an intimidating physicality to reflect Duke Frederick's thuggery, with slaps, shoves and "a magnificently constructed WWE-style wrestling match, complete with bunny girls keeping score."

Arden answers with verdant hills on Anisha Fields' set — so beautiful, the review says, that "they verge on the voluptuous."

Who makes the show look this good?

• Anisha Fields designs the set, whose hills define the Forest of Arden.
• Colin Richmond designs the black Elizabethan gowns of the court, Puritan-like but flecked with ornament.
• Ryan Day handles lighting, including the chequered shadow-play of the early scenes.

The review calls the gowns "stunning" and praises the lighting design in equal measure.

Did the technical failure damage the production?

Not irreparably. The opening-night breakdown delayed the big reveal of Arden for well over an hour. The Guardian notes that "the breathtaking contrast of the switch between worlds is inevitably lost, following the long wait of the technical problem, but is nonetheless beautifully envisioned."

The production now runs at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, where audiences can expect the full contrast between Frederick's severe court and Arden's voluptuous freedom once the stagecraft performs as designed.