AS YOU
LIKE IT by William Shakespeare
As You Like It was probably first performed in the Autumn of
1599 at the newly opened Globe Theatre in London.
We do not know who first played Rosalind but we do know that
the part was not played by a woman. Tradition has it that
Shakespeare himself played the part of Adam, a role which in
our production is incorporated into the character of
Charles.
The earliest recorded performance of the play was in 1723 at
Drury Lane, in an adaptation by Charles Johnson called Love
in a Forest. A production closer to Shakespeare's text was
given in 1740, with Hannah Pritchard as Rosalind and Kitty
Clare as Celia (a part she continued to play until 1763).
From then the play was constantly performed. |
THE DUKES
OLIVER
ORLANDO
ROSALIND
CELIA
CHARLES
DIRECTOR & DESIGNER
ADMINISTRATOR
TOP BIRD
MUSIC
MOVEMENT
HAIR
VOICE
DRAMATURGY
ARTISTIC ASSOCIATE
PHOTOGRAPHY
FIGHTING
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
A. S. M. |
Richard Auckland
Paola Cavallin
Karola Timm
Rebecca Hall
Hannah Buvik
Jean Pagni
Luke Dixon
Liz Turner
Jane Hutchison
David Baird
Jane Turner
Margita Roth
Edda Sharpe & Sue Henry
Birte Twisselmann
Noël Greig
Sarah Ainslie
Rebecca Hall
Julia Simon
Rebecca Bateman |
|
 |
Eighteenth century Rosalinds included Peg Woffington,
Mary-Ann Yates, Mary Robinson, Sarah Siddons and most
notably Dorothy Jordan who played the part for thirty years.
Macready restored much of Shakespeare's text for his
production in 1842 but it was not until 1896 that the full
text was staged for the first time in three hundred years in
a production by George Alexander.
The show lasted four hours. Julia Neilson was Rosalind, Fay
Davis was Celia and Henry Irving played Oliver 'much like
Iago', according to Bernard Shaw in his review.
Théophile Gautier wrote a novel Madamemoiselle de Maupin in
1835 which was both a version of As You Like It and a novel
which contained a staging of the play. The novelist George
Sand staged her own very different version of the play in
Paris in 1856. Great Rosalinds of the nineteenth century
included Helen Faucit, Mary Anderson and Lily Langtry.
The twentieth century saw a male actor as Rosalind for the
first time in nearly four hundred years when Ronald Pickup
played the part in an all-male production at Britain's
National Theatre in 1967. The play returned to the Globe, in
the newly reconstructed theatre, in 1998 with Anastasia
Hille as Rosalind.
The first performance of our production was at Park Theatre
Eastbourne on 23 September 1998 followed by a
British tour to Goodnestone Park, St. Paul's Church Covent
Garden, Trinity Arts Centre Tunbridge Wells, Theatre Royal
Margate, Hackney Empire Studio, The Bull Barnet, Princess
Royal Theatre Port Talbot, Steiner Theatre London, Astor
Theatre Deal and Merlin Theatre Haverfordwest. The
production played at The Fringe Club as part of the 1999
Hong Kong Festival.
In the original cast the parts of Rosalind, Celia, Orlando
and Oliver were played by Edda Sharpe, Rebecca Hall, Louise
Barrett and Joanne MacInnes.
This revised production opened at The Tower Theatre as part
of the Brighton Festival in May 1999 before playing Castle
Community School Deal, King George VI Park Ramsgate, Pimlico
School, Goodnestone Park Kent, Rosehill Theatre Whitehaven
and Le Jardin Shakespeare Paris.
The production then toured South Africa, playing in
Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth and Darling. At some of the
perfomances Rosalind was played by Natasha Wightman and
Celia by Tina Gambe. |
|
|
|
