As You Like It: A Primer

To help prepare for the upcoming Great River Shakespeare Festival and to help get over those who-was-that-again and what-did-he-say-about-his-brother and why-was-she-banished questions that can distract an audience member in the first few scenes of a Shakespeare Comedy, Minnesota Theatre offers its primer on William Shakespeare’s As You Like It.

As You Like It is a comedy

With a play billed as a comedy, Shakespeare’s audience would have had certain expectations about the makeup of a comedy. Shakespeare, looking for box office success, usually met those expectations. Not only would a comedy be funny, but it would often move from an urban to a pastoral setting, few will die, individual mishaps won’t spoil the fun of the play, and the hero will not only end the play happy, he or she will end the play getting married. Often the marriage happiness is so contagious that nearly everyone on stage will get married.

So with a happy ending assured, Shakespeare’s original audience could sit back and enjoy the word play, cross dressing, and other foolery without worrying about that powerful Duke on his way to the forest to cut everyone to bits for having too much darn fun while being banished. So we don’t have to worry about it either.

The Plot

I’ve just mentioned the powerful and mean Duke. Here’s the back-story: Duke Senior, the good Duke, and all his people have been driven out of the court by his brother Frederick—the usurper Duke. Duke Frederick is mean, but he loves his daughter Celia and even allows the banished Duke’s daughter Rosalind to stay in the court because Celia and Rosalind are great friends.

At the beginning of As You Like It, Duke Frederick changes his mind about Rosalind because he is mad that people keep running away from the court to join up with his banished brother in the forest. He banishes Rosalind, and Celia chooses to forsake her father and runs away with Rosalind.

In another spat between brothers, Orlando learns that his brother Oliver means to kill him, so he sets out to join up with the banished Duke. But just before leaving, Orlando has a brief encounter with Rosalind, and becomes sick with love.

That’s pretty much the plot. Bad guys stay at court; good guys leave for the forest where life is pretty good, rules are suspended, and everyone eats well.

Woman Dresses as a Man

Shakespeare returns to one of his favorite tropes: he has a woman dress as a man. In As You Like It, Rosalind decides that it would be safer if she traveled as a rough countryman, so she takes on the name and appearance of Ganymede. And as a man, she meets Orlando who is wondering the countryside writing love poems to her. Predictably, Rosalind will advise Orlando how to pursue his suit and even convinces him to say his love words to Ganymede with a vague promise that those words will somehow get to Rosalind.

It is interesting to note that modern audiences see a female actor playing a woman pretending to be a man. Shakespeare’s original audience—because all parts were played by men—would have seen a male actor playing a woman pretending to be a man. And while it might have seemed more natural to watch a male actor portraying a man, it is likely that the actor would have been a boy. This would make jokes about a lack of beard or other masculine trappings funny on several levels. But I digress.

Other Interesting Characters

Touchstone the Clown. Anytime Shakespeare includes a fool or clown, pay attention: there’s often wisdom with the wit.

Jaques. He spends the entire play wallowing in “melancholy,” shunning the company of the happy banished band. He won’t be cheered, but he does get to deliver one of Shakespeare’s most famous speeches: “All the World’s a stage, / and all the men and women merely players.” Look for it at the end of Act II.

Charles. Listed in the Dramatis Personae as “wrestler to Duke Frederick.” This is the only play I know that boasts a wrestler, and while it’s probably not worthy of note, I am noting it. Actually, much could be written about Charles: Charles is instrumental in Orlando and Rosalind meeting; Frederick has a wrestler who kills opponents while Duke Senior is wrestler free. Can’t wait to see who gets to play Charles.

The Plot (Again)

For those of you worried about the plot and the mean Duke traveling to the forest with his brutal army to end the happy party of the banished Duke: don’t worry. And for those of you who still worry, Shakespeare conjures up a third brother to Orlando in Act V who suddenly appears in the forest with news of the advancing Duke Frederick:

And to the skirts of this wild wood he came; Where meeting with an old religious man, After some question with him, was converted Both from his enterprise and from the world, His crown bequeathing to his banished brother, And all their lands restor’d to them again That were with him exil’d.

No need to worry: make way for the weddings, sit back, and enjoy a great play produced by the Great River Shakespeare Festival in their fourth season.

The Great River Shakespeare Festival launches its fourth season in Winona with previews on June 28 and June 29 of Macbeth and As You Like It. The two plays run through July 29.

Visit the Great River Shakespeare Festival for schedules: Great River Shakespeare Festival