Essential Reading and Listening

Listen to the RSC Director's commentary on their 2013 production of the play:



and read what the RSC have to say about their production:

POLITICAL BACKGROUND 

As You Like It was written in 1599, the same year in which Shakespeare wrote Henry V and began writing Hamlet. The first Globe Theatre was also built in this year. 1599 was a tense and unstable political time for England. In the Protestant court of Elizabeth I the puritans were becoming increasingly powerful. The puritans wanted to close the public theatres and Elizabeth’s enthusiasm for drama was critical to the survival of Shakespeare’s company among others. 

Elizabeth herself was growing old but had not yet named an heir. England was constantly under the threat of invasion. In 1599 Queen Elizabeth sent an army to crush a rebellion in Ireland and the English successfully defeated an attack by the Spanish Armada. Had the Spanish been successful, England would have become a Catholic country. 

Country people, by contrast, were unconcerned with the politics of religion and had a more relaxed attitude toward defining their faith. A variety of faith systems, including pagan ones, could be found among country dwellers. 

In this context it is possible to interpret the court of Duke Ferdinand in As You Like It as reflecting the more rigid and stringent practices of the English court. By contrast, the inhabitants of the Forest of Arden mirror the diversified and more liberal spirit of English country life. 

For more information about the events of this important year, see James Shapiro’s 1599. 

SYNOPSIS AND STAGING 

The first production of As You Like It would have been performed at the Globe Theatre in Southwark in 1599. Rosalind, one of Shakespeare’s greatest female roles, would have been played by a young male apprentice: no women were allowed to perform onstage in Shakespeare’s time. Rosalind, therefore, was played by a boy pretending to be a woman who was pretending to be a man. 

For a full synopsis of the play and further information about original staging practice please visit: 

http://www.rsc.org.uk/whats-on/as-you-like-it/synopsis.aspx 

http://www.rsc.org.uk/whats-on/as-you-like-it/history-of-the-play.aspx 

TWO WORLDS: THE COURT & THE FOREST 

‘The Court and the Forest in many ways are each other’s opposites. I guess it was finding two worlds that felt really far apart, that both felt contemporary and that captured the essence of the play in different ways.’ – 

MARIA ABERG, DIRECTOR 

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COURT AND FOREST 

‘You have to perform your gender in the court. There are rigid rules on how you are allowed to behave.’ 
MARIA ABERG 
‘The wildness of the forest was important, as was the potential to be physically freer in the natural world. And, by contrast, Maria spoke about the court as being cold and lacking in sensuality.’ 
AYSE TASHKIRAN, MOVEMENT DIRECTOR 
The movement from the court to the Forest of Arden in As You Like It represents the opportunity the characters have for change. The new setting opens up a world of fewer restrictions, in which Rosalind can play Ganymede and all the characters can express themselves. Whereas, in the court the only form of self-expression seems to be the wrestling that Duke Frederick enjoys.