As You Like It (1992)
by William Shakespeare
In our 1992 production of As You Like It, director Maria Aitken, placed her version as the film set of a Thirties movie, complete with film cameras, crude wind machines and director chairs. With lots of cinematic in-jokes and parody's of storybook England with costumes from a medieval pageant, this was an entirely new re-imagining of the well-known comedy. Many of the cast were members of illustrious theatrical dynasties, including Rex Harrison's granddaughter Cathryn Harrison as Rosalind, Ian Holm's daughter Bette Bourne, with a 'feathered cloake, hook-nose and bouffant hairstyle...sweeping across the stage like a bird of prey' (Evening Standard).
The cast
Bette Bourne
Jaques
Rhys Ifans
Lord attending Duke Senior/Jaques, son of Sir Rowland de Boys
Ken Bones
Oliver
Cathryn Harrison
Rosalind
Sarah-Jane Holm
Celia
Anna Patrick
Phebe
Samantha Spiro
Audrey
David Sumner
Duke Senior/Duke Frederick
Daniel Gillingwater
Amiens
Alister Cameron
Lord attending Duke Senior/Lord attending to Duke Frederick/Sir Oliver Martext
Paul Aves
Le Beau
Edward Max
Charles, a wrestler
Oliver Parker
Orlando
Richard Butler
Adam
Paul Hawkyard
Dennis
John Kane
Touchstone
George Pensotti
Corin
Nigel Hastings
Silvius
Gavin Payne
William/Hymen
Gina Cameron
Country Girl
Gillian Rushton
Country Girl
Creative team
Maria Aitken
Director
Bruno Santini
Designer
Kenn Oldfield
Choreographer
Mark Emney
Musical Director
Peter Woodward
Fight Director
Rachel Kavanaugh
Assistant Director
Lighting Designer
Jason Taylor
Assistant Director
Kamyar Attabai
Assistant Director
Alister Cameron
Programmes and Marketing
Rehearsals
Reviews
Claire Armistead
"The framing concept is that Shakespearean pastoral life has its match in the artifice of the vintage hollywood movie... Though this tinkering can seem distractingly fussy, the undoubted coup is the casting of drag queen Bette Bourne as a Jaques who, as the movie's director, becomes the central intelligence - fastidious, cynical, torn between loathing and amusement at the play's heterosexual antics..."
Ms London
"The open air stage is perfect for the woodland scenes where fleeing maids rosalind (Cathryn Harrison), disguised as Ganymeade, and cousin Celia (Sarah-Jane Holm), disguised as Aliena, play hide-and-seek." "The shrill of a hovering crow adds to the forest environs and as the audience nestle down, wrapped in car blankets with hampers at their feet, the epilogue signals that a perfect evening is skilfully captured on film."
Daily Express
"There is much to admire in the evening, not least in the theatrical dynasties on display. Rex Harrison's granddaughter Cathryn makes the most beguiling Rosalind. Ian Holm's daughter Sarah-Jane is a spirited Celia and Sir Peter Parker's son Oliver is a most virile Orlando..."
Evening Standard
"Bruno Santini has cleverly designed period costumes which might have hung in Robert Atkins's wardrobe."