As You Like It’ demonstrates love has no rhyme or reason

The upcoming production of William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” proves people still fall weak in the knees to the temptations of love, even after 400 years.

The play will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, as well as 7:30 p.m. Nov. 17 to 21 at the Ruth N. Halls Theatre. Regular admission is $20, $15 for students/seniors, $12 student rush tickets with a valid student ID on the day of each performance. Tickets are available at IU Auditorium or online at www.theatre.indiana.edu.  

Not far off from Elizabethan plays, in which male characters wooed female characters played by young boys, this modern version embodies females in typically male roles and vice versa.

Curtains rise on Friday at the Ruth N. Halls Theatre to reveal the adventures of love in a battlefield, with laughter in place of sword fighting.

“The difference between a tragedy and a comedy is at the end of the play, the stage is not littered with dead bodies and rather with celebrations,” Director Fontaine Syer said.

Journeying into the Robin Hood-esque Forest of Arden and away from burdens of court life leads one of Shakespeare’s most compelling female characters, Rosalind, played by graduated student Kristl Densley, into the tricky games of love. She is accompanied in disguise by her beloved cousin, Celia, played by senior Gina DeSerio, and they must cleverly embrace the enchanting power of a hidden world.

“I thought of Katharine Hepburn who often wore pants when designing Rosalind’s spunky and strong female character,” senior and costume designer Jennifer Sheshko said. “A runaway in male disguise allows her to act out of persona and feel liberated.”
Birds chirp and lutes play as same-sex and heterosexual couples fall head over heels, powerless to unequivocal attraction.

“This play emphasizes love at all costs,” said graduate student Jaysen Wright, who plays the role of Silvius.  “Gender doesn’t have anything to do with it.”

As dukes become duchesses, the script follows suit, with altered pronouns replacing “he” with “she.”

Unlike other Shakespeare tales with typically male-dominated casts, this adaptation focuses on female characters.

One of the reasons for making so many characters female is because “women so often get cheated when we do Shakespeare,” Syer said. “There are always so many more men than women. The women’s roles are fabulous, but there usually aren’t very many of them.”

In terms of the show’s set design, two worlds become one as columns in court become trees of a mysterious forest.

The intricate veins of an open heart inspired the tree branches and depth of the Forest of Arden, said graduate student and scenic designer, Hyunsuk Shin.

“I started from the human heart because love is not just the brainwork,” Shin said.
 
Without rhyme or reason, hearts pitter pat while control and sanity is neglected.

“Everyone should have the right to stand up with the one they love,” said Jonathan
Courtemanche, graduate student and assistant director.