“AS YOU LIKE IT," through Sept. 7, Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre, 200 W. College Ave, Cedar City (435-586-7878 or bard.org); running time: 3 hours (one intermission)
CEDAR CITY — Why do we love who we love? And, likewise, why do we hate who we hate?
William Shakespeare’s crowd-pleasing comedy “As You Like It” may not directly ask these question — and the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s 2017 production keeps the action moving too fast for a whole lot of character introspection — but the plot does make one wonder.
Director Robynn Rodriguez opened this charming, if somewhat uneven, three-hour production with a pack of minstrels singing a melancholy ditty in a minor key, setting a somber tone for a play that quickly turned deeply — almost pathologically — lighthearted. If all tragedies end with a death and all comedies with a marriage, “As You Like It” reigns supreme as king comedy with not one but four weddings at the end.
But the characters have to get there first, and if you know anything about Shakespeare, "the course of true love never did run smooth."
Which brings us back to the loving and hating. Here’s the short of it: Oliver (Geoffrey Kent) hates his younger brother Orlando (Jeb Burris). He doesn’t know why — he admits as much, but still, brothers can be hard. Duke Frederick (John G. Preston) hates his older brother the Duke Senior (also John G. Preston), and banished the older duke from his kingdom to live like Robin Hood in the forest (which, truthfully, seems a lot more fun than court life).
The young, strapping Orlando, on the other hand, loves the old Duke’s daughter Rosalind (Cassandra Bissell), who he briefly met in a chance encounter. She, thankfully, also loves him, falling for the worthy youth just as suddenly. Rounding out the loving is Duke Frederick’s daughter Celia’s (Susana Florence) sisterly love for her cousin Rosalind — who again returns her love just as dearly. The lovers end up wandering the Forest of Arden, where they encounter even more characters who (mostly) love and (sometimes) hate each other.
Although “As You Like It” is packed with characters, all productions of the play hinge on the merits of one actor: Rosalind.
Happily for the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s production, Cassandra Bissell managed the job with an appealing girl-next-door charm that, while maybe not dazzling, certainly kept the audience engaged. Bissell played Rosalind a little like Anne Shirley — a lively, romantic young woman who seemed equal parts English major (hello, verbal wit) and lead in the school play. She was dramatic while still feeling utterly natural.
Bissell was helped onstage by some standout performances from her fellow actors. Susanna Florence’s Celia, while not nearly as verbal a character as her witty cousin, still sparkled onstage as the good-time girl. It helped, too, that Florence and Bissell had such an appealing onstage chemistry that it seemed a shame to see them split up at the end to go off with other people.
Jonathan Haugen seemed to be channeling Robin Williams (think Williams in "Mrs. Doubtfire" as opposed to "Mork and Mindy") as the clown Touchstone, earning many of the night’s biggest laughs with his offhand wit and charm.
Likewise Michael Elich played the forest dweller Jaques (described as “a melancholy gentleman”) as an elegant free-spirit with a good dose of self-deprecation and joie de vivre. Elich also got the play's most famous speech, warmly stating, "All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players."
Scenic designer Scott Davis played this production straight, with no modern set pieces, instead making good use of the Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre's traditional Renaissance thrust stage. The wooden backdrop, columns and balcony were cleverly transformed from the first act at the duke’s court to the second act in the Forest of Arden by actors pulling down screens painted with trees. The warm lighting and chirping birds provided by lighting designer Michael Pasquini and sound designer Matt Tibbs also helped the audience make an easy imaginative leap from court to forest. Costume designer Lauren T. Roark put the actors in visually appealing and vaguely Elizabethan dress — knee boots for the men, wide and narrow hoops for the ladies. All of their work added rather than distracted from Shakespeare's words and the actors' delivery, a high compliment in the theater world.
So, while we may not know why we hate some things and love others, as the happy couples danced together at the end of “As You Like It,” there was little doubt why the audience stood to applaud them: They were inspired by love for the Bard.
Content advisory: There is nothing objectionable in this production; however, given the length and somewhat complicated plot, children may have a hard time sitting through it.