AS YOU LIKE IT
It is hard to expect something innovative out of modern adaptations of Shakespeare. But it is simplicity that lets truly great acting and production shine in Kate Gaul’s adaptation of As You Like It. This Siren Theatre Co play has refreshingly exploited one of the great aspects of the theatre: the ability to turn an empty stage into a magical place. Though seemingly only a curtain and a set of chairs at the start, the play soon unravels a dynamic forest of love and exile, where trees are an unnecessary prop when you have lights, hilarious costumes, a live band and singer, and a cast that can as soon turn from princesses into goats. In As You Like It, moustaches transform females into males, flowers bloom from hands, catchy songs and group-choreography momentarily turn the play into a musical…’tis true, this group has managed to make the audience feel like ‘all the world’s a stage’. Instead of trying to confine dialogue to the boundaries of epochs and contexts, this hilarious play clearly demonstrates the timelessness of spectacle and romance.
Until May 7, Carriageworks, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh, $25-33, 1300 723 038, ticketmaster.com.au
BY HENAR PERALES
