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Review of As You Like It (directed by David Lan) at Wyndham's Theatre, London September 2005

David Lan’s production of As You Like It evoked the Ardennes with a continental setting. The chic costuming and striking design (Richard Hudson) complemented stylized performances, where the sheep and goats were personified with umbrella-handle-horns, and a storm began after a single figure mimed the instruction to ‘‘Blow, blow, thou winter wind’’ (2.7.175). However, the opening dialogue between Orlando (Dominic West) and Adam (David Killick) was emphatically realistic. Orlando’s flat vowels and slow speech enhanced the significance of the wine bottle in his hand. His physicalization of the ‘‘hogs’’ (1.1.35) made clear his aggressive antipathy towards Oliver (Andrew Woodall). Orlando’s approach to the wrestling match was invested with a seriousness that disconcerted a light-hearted and jovial Charles (Andrew French). The trained fighter flexed his muscles and arrogantly underestimated the unprepossessing figure of a shambling, bespectacled Orlando wearing an old leather scrum-cap. The latter’s perseverance and determination disconcerted Charles sufficiently to cause the fight to spill off the front of the stage into the stalls. The constriction imposed by the court was made clear and the depth of the performing space would double when Rosalind (Helen McCrory) and Celia (Sienna Miller) moved to find ‘‘liberty’’ (1.3.137) in the forest. The two female socialites discarded their smoking, wine-sipping and furwearing sophistication to act less self-consciously and more practically within the forest. The close environment of the court expanded to reveal what seemed to be the brick wall at the back of the stage, and small green shoots sprouted on all three sides. The notion of potential growth in the forest was realized powerfully through the prominence of literature and music in this ‘‘golden world’’ (1.1.113). A copy of the Arden text, a double bass and a cello had been onstage, even before the audience entered. Duke Senior (Clive Rowe) conducted the musicians (piano, double bass, cello, flute and accordion) and the singers