PREVIEW
As You Like It
Runs until March 15
Citadel Theatre
9828 101 A Ave., Edmonton
Tickets: Call 780-425-1820 or visit citadeltheatre.com
Holy Batman! The flower power '60s is back in full-blown psychedelic colour at the Citadel Theatre’s version of As You Like It. And the audience gave it a raucous, full-blown standing ovation at Thursday’s opening night.
The Shakespeare production celebrates many forms of love – romantic love, love between a father and child, love between siblings and love of friends.
Rather than mount the same-old, same-old, artistic director Daryl Cloran made a risky move to hack away half of the Bard’s text and insert 25 Beatles songs. While Shakespeare purists might feel offended, it was a stroke of genius.
The result is a campy, upbeat romantic comedy that loses none of the message while the songs advance the plot and deliver real emotion.
Cloran sets the action in the 1960s' Forest of Okanagan. Duke Frederick of Vancouver has ousted and seized the lands of his older brother Duke Senior and various noblemen loyal to him. The usurped Duke and his nobles have escaped to the Okanagan in a rust-bucket floral van where they live off the land like hippies.
One of the delights of this production is watching a stellar company execute Jonathan Hawley Purvis’s snappy, flawless choreography.
For instance in I Saw Her Standing There, Farren Timoteo as Silvius, a long-haired, hen-pecked farmer, declares his love for Phoebe while dancing and throwing himself across the stage.
A few songs later Jeff Irving, as the sexy but naive Orlando, slides across the stage and does the twist while singing Do You Want to Know a Secret. And in the second act, Irving and Lindsey Angell (Rosalind) perform a sizzling Can’t Buy Me Love, a super-charged, drum-heavy number that integrates Grease-styled moves.
As You Like It is packed with pronouncements of love, but it never turns sappy. Cloran fills the action with many unexpected comedic twists and turns that simply keep the party rockin’.
Kayvon Khoshkam, as the tart-tongued Touchstone, Rosalind’s servant, practically steals the show. Sporting a springy hairstyle reminiscent of boxing promoter Don King and a flashy Elton John wardrobe, he clearly despises rural life. Khoshkam nails every joke whether being chased by a bee or singing Help as he tries to carry a ton of luggage.
Although St. Albert actress Jenny McKillop landed a small part as Audrey, the earthy farm girl, she delivered one of the funniest jokes throughout the show. While sizing up Touchstone’s advances, she declares, “I’m not a slut,” and then yanks a cucumber from inside her shirt.
Jameela McNeil is utterly charming as the practical, loyal cousin Celia, while Paul Essiembre doubles gracefully as both the generous, compassionate Duke Senior and the narcissistic, politically ambitious Duke Frederick.
And by delivering the 7 Ages of Man soliloquy and singing the hallucinogenic I Am the Walrus, Sarah Constible, as the melancholy Jacques, neatly balances the lovers’ rosy declarations of love.
The storyline is clear and crisp, the performances are sophisticated and the music is all-embracing. As You Like It is one for the calendar.
And if patrons arrive at the theatre 30-minutes early, they will be treated to a warm-up choreographed wrestling match.
