A bunch of people from Auckland decided to build a replica of the Globe theatre that Shakespeare and his company built in 1614. It's currently in Melbourne, from the 21st of September to the 12th of November, 2017. They're doing As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, Henry V, and Around the Globe in 60 minutes (a brief history of Shakespeare). I kinda wanted to see Much Ado About Nothing, based solely on the title, but for some reason, I ended up buying a ticket for As You Like It. Was this a repeat of the croissant class where I accidentally booked a misc French desserts class instead? Was this fate? I will never know.
I didn't know it at the time, but this play is the source of this famous quote:
All the world's a stage,The Globe is set up outside the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. That's right, it's outside. So don't make the same mistake I did and bring a picnic blanket hoping to be sprawled out on the grass sipping champagne while watching this (there was to be no champagne sipping, but I did have a box of chips from Lord of the Fries).
And all the men and women merely players;
My ticket was only $20.33, but it was a ground ticket, so standing room only. I really went all out this month, and I've nearly hit my $400 limit already. Go me!
I actually thought it would be fun to stand, as it would be like experiencing a Shakespearean play the way that regular people would back in the day. There was room for about 200 people to stand. I managed to secure a place towards the back, so I could lean on the railing, which turned out to be a good thing. Standing up for 3 hours is tiring!
Yeah... if you're going to go to this, I recommend wearing comfortable shoes and swaying so that you move your weight from one foot to the other, allowing them to rest a bit.
In the tradition of ye olde Shakespearean plays, the female characters were played by male actors. I thought it was a great touch.
I had neither seen nor read As You Like It before watching this. Some of the play was faithful to the original script, but some of it was also modernised. I thought I would try and explain what I understood of the plot first, and then look it up on Wikipedia to see how close I was.
The story starts with some Irish dude telling people to make sure their phones are on silent / flight mode, lest they risk losing limbs. Pretty sure that wasn't Shakespeare.
Then two groups of people pull swords out at each other for some reason.
We switch to a conversation where Orlando is telling Adam something about how he wants to prove himself. Orlando's older brother, whose name I never catch, so I'll just refer to him as Orlando's brother, comes in and Orlando asks why he was never given the chance to be educated, like a man of his status should be. Orlando's brother says something about how Orlando is useless, and Orlando says he'll prove himself with a wrestling match.
Rosalind (who is referred to as a princess???) and her cousin Celia are talking with a jester about wrestling and how exciting it'll be to watch it. (I was actually confused at this point, as I couldn't tell if Rosalind and Celia were supposed to be men or women, but I figured it wouldn't matter).
Orlando's brother is talking to this really buff dude called Charles, and laughing about something. Charles is doing push-ups and pull-ups and all the things that really buff dudes do to show that they're really buff. And he has no shirt on. It turns out that this is the guy that Orlando, who is a scrawny-looking guy, will be fighting.
The fight starts, with Orlando's brother and a bunch of nobles cheering Charles on, and Rosalind, Cecelia and the jester (Touchstone?) cheering Orlando on.
Charles manages to win the early game, but Orlando manages to take advantage of the comeback mechanics and wins in the end. The duke asks his name, and he says he's the youngest son of Roland something, and it turns out that the duke hates Roland, so Orlando is banished, but not until Rosalind gives him her necklace. Rosalind tries to defend him, but she gets banished, too, for some reason, and Celia says if Rosalind gets banished, she'll get banished, too.
For some reason, Rosalind has to disguise herself as man during her banishment, so she calls herself Ganymede. Celia changes her name to Aliena and pretends to be Ganymede's sister. They go in search of Rosalind's dad, who had been banished some time earlier, and now lives in the forest. Oh, and he's also the duke's brother, and the duke staged a coup and stole the dukedom from him.
Suddenly, everyone is in the forest, and Orlando is completely lovestruck and is sticking poems to trees, writing about Rosalind.
Baby, you light up my world like nobody else
The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed
But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell
You don't know you're beautiful
Oh, wait... someone else already did that.
Because this was a troupe from New Zealand, there are sheep doing some very NSFW things.
Orlando and Rosalind meet, but of course, he doesn't know that it's Rosalind. Ganymede asks him if he's the one who has been putting up all those poems, and he says that it was him. Side note: I really liked all the scenes with Rosalind as Ganymede - it was a guy playing a girl pretending to be a guy. So funny. Anyway, Ganymede / Rosalind doesn't believe that Orlando truly loves Rosalind. I got really confused here, but at the end, Ganymede tells Orlando that the best way to get over Rosalind is to pretend that he, Ganymede, is Rosalind, and direct all of his affections towards him instead. For some reason, Orlando, who was supposedly head over heels in love with Rosalind, agrees to this plan and says he will meet Ganymede at his home tomorrow.
In the meantime, Orlando has met some other noble, who agrees to feed him and Adam. I never worked out why. The duke threatens Orlando's brother, telling him that he has to find Orlando and bring him back, dead or living.
The agreed meeting time between Ganymede and Orlando comes and goes, without Orlando showing up. Ganymede thinks he doesn't love her. Orlando's brother shows up instead (how does he know where the exiled Rosalind is?????) and tells her that Orlando was killed in a battle with a lion.
Nope, Orlando just has a sling. I didn't understand this either.
Oh, and Ganymede meets a couple of other guys in the forest. There's a shepherd who is in love with his master, but the master is in love with Ganymede. But Orlando is in love with Ganymede pretending to be Rosalind. Ganymede tells the shepherd's master to love the shepherd instead, but he won't listen. Oh, and Rosalind's father appears.
Ganymede comes up with a plan. She tells the shepherd's master that if she's a man, she'll marry him. Then she tells Orlando that Rosalind will marry him. Lastly, she tells the shepherd that he will marry his master. Since they're all there for this conversation, I don't know how it doesn't occur to any of them that the maths doesn't add up, but they all seem content with the plan, because they think they're getting what they want.
The day of the wedding arrives, and Ganymede says that if the shepherd's master doesn't get to marry Ganymede today, he should marry his shepherd instead. He agrees. Then Ganymede gets changed and ta-da! Rosalind has re-appeared. Celia has changed back, and wants to marry Orlando's brother, despite the fact that he seems like a cowardly asshole. But I guess having the My Heart Will Go On playing in the background when you meet someone is enough to make you fall in love.
Side note: Celia was the best part of this play. The guy playing her was hilarious.
This all seems like it won't work, but then God drops from the sky and says it will work, so it does.
Celia marries Orlando's brother, Rosalind marries Orlando, the shepherd marries his master, and everyone is happy except the duke, who ends up un-banishing Rosalind's father and reinstating him as duke.
Lots of great dancing at the end. And Rosalind strips, and I was so shocked to see the guy playing her.
He was really fantastic.
I thought the show was a bit slow to start, but that's to be expected as you have to learn the characters. After the intermission, it really took off, and I don't think I stopped laughing.
I wasn't too far off with the story... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_You_Like_It#Synopsis
I really enjoyed how the cast interacted with the audience - another one of the benefits of being on the "ground". You really had to be careful standing too close to the front, as one of the character spits his "teeth" into the audience... twice. Another character drinks too much alcohol and "vomits" into the audience. Yet another character spills his skin of beer into the audience. So yeah... if you're going to stand in the first few rows, I'd suggest a raincoat. Plus, the Globe doesn't have a roof, and it's Melbourne, so a raincoat might be safe anyway.
A couple of people from the audience were picked to make some sheep sounds. The guy standing next to me yelled out, "Can you speak faster, it's raining?!" and the cast rolled with it. The audience were asked whether certain characters were telling the truth (though it seems like you're supposed to lie when a "good" character is being questioned, and tell the truth when a "bad" character is being questioned). A couple of other audience members were worked into the story.
Aside from the sore legs, I really enjoyed the performance. There was a brief intermission about an hour and a half into the show, so it was good to stretch my legs. Seated tickets seem to be around $80-$170, but if you think you can handle the standing, I thought being on the ground was great.
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