Marin Shakespeare kicks off its summer season at Forest Meadows Amphitheatre with a new adaptation of the Bard’s As You Like It.
Running through July 19, this two-and-a-half-hour adaptation (by director Evren Odcikin) of Shakespeare’s most gender-fluid play is a glittering homage to queer culture and history.
Rosalind (Jeunée Simon), the daughter of the overthrown duke (Cathleen Riddley), together with her cousin Celia (Fatemeh Mehraban) and the fool Touchstone (David Sinaiko), set out for the Forest of Arden in disguise. Also in the forest are Rosalind’s love interest, Orlando (Adam Magill), Orlando’s estranged sister (Stevie DeMott), and, of course, the melancholy Jacques (Lisa Wolpe). Mistaken identities abound, of course.
Though traditionally the leads are Rosalind and Orlando, Odcikin has chosen to direct this as an ensemble, and this cast makes it work. All the actors work well together, with no one actor standing out from the others.
The set (Randy Wong-Westbrooke) is gorgeous, especially the Forest of Arden. The unusual materials used to create the set are perfect for evoking a liberated artistic haven.
As You Like It is as close to a musical as any Shakespeare play gets, and this production embraces that by having all action stop while performer Lady Zen, who’s also the show’s composer and musical director, sings as the bard Amiens. This does slow the pacing a little bit, but the songs are beautifully composed and performed.
Lovers of the traditional script should know that some major cuts have been made in this production. The character of Phebe and the entire subplot associated with her have been cut completely. To be fair, that plotline requires everyone to be heteronormative, and this adaptation is proudly and boisterously queer.
The other thing audiences should be aware of is that, despite cutting an entire subplot, this show still somehow runs two and a half hours. I saw the preview performance, so I can’t speak to the fully polished run, but on the night I saw it the play felt long. Despite the aforementioned stops for songs, it would be hard to pinpoint exactly where the pacing bogs down; it just does. Thankfully, the pacing picked up in the second act.
Length aside, Marin Shakespeare’s As You Like It is a visually stunning adaptation that, for Pride Month, appropriately celebrates queerness in all of its beautiful (and sometimes messy) reality.
‘As You Like It’ runs Thur–Sun through July 19 at the Forest Meadows Amphitheatre at Dominican University of California, 890 Belle Ave., San Rafael. Thurs–Sat, 7:30pm; Sun, 5pm. $15-$49. 415.388.5208. marinshakespeare.org.
