“AS YOU LIKE IT.’

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26985, 10 March 1953, Page 11

“AS YOU LIKE IT.’

THE STAGE

Shakespearean Comedy Presented

"My way is to conjure you,” says Rosalind as she speaks the epilogue to “As You Like It.” Last evening all her fellows of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company shared in her bewitching arts. For a space they transported the audience in the Tpeatre Royal from the worries of the workaday world ‘to the sunny glades of Arden, there to “fleet the time carelessly, ah they did in the golden world.’” Shakespeare’s exquisite pastoral comedy, the second production of a memorable season, has moments of sylvan simplicity far removed from the power and passion of “Othello.” But the players moved from Cyprus to Arden easily and skilfully, bringing to joyous life the happiest of all Shakespeare’s plays, and its tippling verse and lilting songs. Nothing was lost of the wit and laughter, the rustic humour, the charm and romance.

“As You Like It” is pastoral in setting,'but the scene is France, and the story verges on the fairy tale. Perrault might have written what has been described as a product of Shakespeare’s “high fantastical” period. And the impression is strengthened by Glen Byam Shaw’s superbly lighted production, which gnds rich colour in costumes of the time of Louis XIII, and uses stage settings after the style of old French tapestries. But the fairy princess of this tale is no sweet and simple heroine. “Heavenly” Rosalind is perhaps the most enchanting of all Shakespeare’s heroines, Jhe irresistible charmer in whom gaiety and sensibility are so wonderfully mingled. And few could resist the Rosalind that Barbara Jefford presents. Her youth and gaiety, her tenderness and mirth, her bubbling wit—all are sheer delight. Miss Jefford gives us these in abundance, and deftly as she plays the girl in the habit of a boy, there is never any doubt 'that she has “no doublet and hose in her disposition.” She is completely feminine. Because “As You Like It” is so much Rosalind, the performance of Miss Jefford shines most brightly. But Shakespeare has enriched all the other characters with most skilful touches of poetry and nature, and the play does not lose its enchantment in Rosalind’s absence. Anthony Quayle has relegated himself to the part of the melancholy Jaques, playing it in such a way as to bring out not only the noble nature of the man, but also the --enjoyment he derives from his melancholy, which is a sad yet pleasing accompaniment to all tha happiness. A touch of foppishness about the portrayal is in keeping with the period chosen bjr the company. And Mr Quayle’s voice—a noble instru-ment-makes new music of speeches that have become almost hackneyed.

Orlando as Keith Michell plays him is modest, sensitive, and courageous. He is a spirited Orlando much in love, but not blind to Rosalind’s deception. Charmian Eyre is a gay and volatile Celia, always subordinate, but an admirable foil for Rosalind’s sprightly wit. It is almost impossible to recognise the magnificent lago in the nimble Touchstone that Leo McKern gives us. Touchstone .is the most amusing and intellectual of the fools, and Mr McKern makes him a master of comic invention. Broad comedy in the accents of Warwickshire is provided by Joan MacArthur’s Audrey, and the rustic humour is well sustained by lan Bannen and Zena Walker as Silvius and Fhebe.