If the Presidential campaign of Ron DeSantis wanders through greater Cleveland in the next couple weeks, one can only hope he stops long enough to catch the production of As You Like It by the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival. This traveling troupe performs outdoors in parks all around the area, glorying in the words of Old Will.
You remember Shakespeare, don’t you Mr. DeSantis? He’s that playwright who happily twisted and reversed genders and relationships for fun and romance, instead of plotting to torture those who were different and destroy their lives. Weird, huh?
In this well-acted production, CleveShakes’ director Kelly Elliott has upped the gender confusion even more, casting a woman to play the romantic lead Orlando as a gal pursued by another woman, Rosalind, who disguises herself as a man for most of the show. (Follow me here, Ron.) Meanwhile, Roz’s best pal Celia has been gender-switched into Cecil, so he can eventually swoon into the loving arms of Oliver (Mike Frye).
Yes, it’s a joyous gender clusterfest and the strong cast has a blast with the slightly truncated material (it runs less than two hours with no intermission).
If you’re not familiar with AYLI, where have you been for the last few centuries? This satirical take on life in the country is a merry bit of fluff as the characters tangle themselves into a variety of snarls and snafus only to have everything work out in the end.
To be more specific, in the land of nasty Duke Frederick (a forbidding Chelsea Cannon), Orlando has been screwed out of her inheritance by her brother Oliver. Not happy with that, Oliver then plots to have Orlando killed in a wrestling match (okay, in this telling it’s arm wrestling). But Orlando wins and hightails it into the forest where Duke Senior, Fred’s bro, has been banished with his tribe of followers.
Orlando meets cute with Rosalind who disguises herself as a dude named Ganymede as a way to get close to her, offering to help the often tongue-tied Orlando in the art of wooing a woman. In this venture, Roz is accompanied by her pal and cousin Cecil, who agrees to cross-dress as her aide, and confusion reigns.
Standout performances include Carolyn Demanelis, who butches it up nicely as Rosalind/Ganymede while Megan Hamm is strong and properly dense as Orlando. Alex Funk eye-rolls and side-eyes his way to near perfection as Cecil. And in the less showy role of the initially-nasty Oliver, Mike Frye makes his character’s sudden attraction to Cecil seem almost believable.
Other fine contributions are made by Cody Swanson as the fool Touchstone, Joshua Kass-Amsterdam as both boisterous Charles and wimpy Silvius, and Allen Branstein who does his thing as Duke Senior.
Of course, this play is known for containing one of Shakespeare’s most memorable speeches, the “Seven Ages of Man.” But as delivered by Jacques (Mia Radabaugh) it feels over-worked and segmented, leaving the words but enriching neither the melody nor the meaning.
That is one of the only missteps in the direction of Elliott, who creates a lively and energetic show featuring a smattering of amusing anachronisms, such as the characters interacting with their cell phones and using Post-Its for the publicly-displayed love notes.
It’s a fun evening for the whole family and it’s free—except for the generous donation you will no doubt offer—and it’s outside! So Ron, bring a lawn chair or blanket and cozy up with one of Shakespeare’s most delightful confections. You might be surprised that non-binary characters, like real non-binary people, can be amusing and endearing when you don’t violate their rights and treat them as gratuitous targets of hate.
As You Like It
Through July 9 at multiple locations. General info at cleveshakes.com, tour schedule at clevelandshakespeare.org/tourguide.
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This article appears in Jun 14-27, 2023.
