Dayna Lea Hoffmann and Alexandra Lainfiesta in As You Like It, Freewill Shakespeare Festival. Photo by Brianne Jang
By Liz Nicholls, .ca
The first hint that Freewill Shakespeare’s As You Like It will go for the bold strokes is that Orlando (the magnetic Braydon Dowler-Coltman), in ball cap and sunglasses, roars up to the stage, to an overture of pounding techno music (by Darrin Hagen). He’s brandishing an industrial strength leaf blower.
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Orlando is seriously pissed off, raging at being cheated of his inheritance and rightful education by his brother. And, hey, Orlando is the nice sibling — gentle, mannerly, a romantic hero destined to fall madly in love at first sight, write rhyming love poems, and nail them to trees. Wait till you meet his treacherous bro (Josh Meredith).
In the third year of a THREE-YEAR exile from Hawrelak Park (a punitive lack of creativity from the city of Edmonton), resourceful Freewill has set up camp in Louise McKinney Riverfront Park. At the back of the stage designed by Emily Faith Randall you can see, and sometimes hear, the traffic changing gear up Grierson Hill; there are trees enough to stand in for the Forest of Arden, with help from worthy arboreal-acting from the audience. So, a city and an oasis from the city: As You Like It in a nutshell.
In this 36th annual edition of Edmonton’s most genial summer festival, Freewill returns to a joyful mid-period romantic comedy with which they have a long and happy history together (since 1995) — a play about retreat, or escape, from oppressive worldly power, re-birth and rediscovery in Nature, and the many permutations of love.
In David Horak’s exuberantly comic production, “of a holiday humour” as Rosalind says of herself, we’re at close enough quarters in this park to feel we’re on an adventure together with the characters. The court, the stronghold of an evil usurper Duke (Ian Leung) complete with a gaggle of sycophants, has an aggressively contemporary edge. The courtier Le Beau, played by Amber Borotsik as a sort of purse-lipped manager, trips briskly around the stage in business attire, with a clipboard. Charles, a muscled hot-rod swaggerer in Brennan Campbell’s amusing cameo, arrives on a Segway, in classic chariot-driver posture.
Brennan Campbell and Braydon Dowler-Coltman, As You Like It, Freewill Shakespeare Festival. Photo by Brianne Jang
When young Orlando stubbornly insists on challenging Charles to a match, the fight plays out as virtual reality combat, ingeniously choreographed by Ainsley Hillyard. And then comes the fateful love-at-first-sight moment: Orlando and Rosalind fall for each other, in a big way.
When the evil Duke banishes Rosalind (Alexandra Lainfiesta), his own feisty daughter Celia (Dayna Lea Hoffmann) opts to go with her, in disguise as a brother-sister act. And they co-opt the court Fool Touchstone (Troy O’Donnell) for their trip to the wild. They do not travel by motorized vehicle, needless to say, by bicycle built for several, with a lot of luggage.
That’s where Rosalind’s dad the good Duke (Leung in a double-turn), a genial woodland host, is living out his exile with his followers, “fleeting the time carelessly as they did in the golden world.” Mother Nature, a Freewill collaborator of long standing, seemed to understand the heart of the play Saturday afternoon. As Rosalind, Celia, and Touchstone arrived in the Forest of Arden, the clouds lifted, the wind died down, and the sun came out.
Josh Meredith and Mhairi Berg, As You LIke It, Freewill Shakespeare Festival. Photo by Brianne Jang
Costumed in classic ‘60s hippie mode by Ami Farrow — tie-dyed folk fest wrap-arounds, scarves, sashes — they are hanging out in the company of philosopher muse Jaques, a melancholy specialist by reputation, played with unusual comic energy and enthusiasm by Nadien Chu. In tune with the demeanour of Horak’s playful production, assorted human sheep cavort by, ears flapping, from time to time, for (organic) decoration.
They’re a musical bunch, in this Horak adaptation for a cast of 12. As You Like It is a play with a generous measure of songs. Techno be gone; the songs go live and acoustic, composed by Mhairi Berg as Amiens, who leads the singing, accompanied by Meredith on guitar.
Alexandra Lainfiesta and Dayna Lea Hoffman, As You LIke It, Freewill Shakespeare Festival. Photo by Brianne Jang
At the centre of a play in which love takes every shape and form — first love, romantic love, parental love, love as loyalty, the love of estranged brothers — is Shakespeare’s most appealing heroine. Rosalind, disguised as the page Ganymede, is played by the agile Lainfiesta as quick-witted and impulsive, a born organizer who can’t quite figure out why everyone else can’t keep up. Her relationship with Celia, played with comic zest by Hoffmann, is one of the delights of the production. As a skeptical observer of Ganymede’s fake courtship by Orlando, Celia rolls her eyes in ‘what are you thinking’? exasperation as Rosalind keeps up her male disguise past the point of comfort (and narrative sense).
Alexandra Lainfiesta and Braydon Dowler-Coltman, As You Like It. Photo by Brianne Jang
This isn’t a production that will shed light on the nuances of that; it’s not about the mystery of self-discovery while in gender-swapped disguise. Dowler-Coltman’s Orlando, in the production’s most nuanced performance, knows at some level he’s being being tested and teased by an attractive someone who never knows when to say when. This is a production about playfulness.
Amber Borotsik and Troy O’Donnell, As You Like It, Freewill Shakespeare Festival. Photo by Brianne Jang
The acting style is broad; the characters tend to illustrate what they’re saying with hand-signal semaphore (true, outdoor productions have to play to the back of the park). It’s a bit wearing up close, over time. Jaques outlines the seven ages of man by diligently acting them out. O’Donnell’s Touchstone arrives in the forest, not as a worldly wit who surprises himself when he’s out of his natural court habitat, but as a hail and hearty sort, an old-school blusterer already countrified. His pursuit of the uneducated goatherd Audrey (Borotsik), which leaves her ardent shepherd beau (Meredith) out in the cold, plays out as farce, with the blithe cruelty that implies. I really enjoyed Cody Porter as a shepherd who knows who he is, and remains unimpressed by this intruder.
The ending, with multiple couplings, is a kind of romantic free-for-all as comic resolution. No one goes home alone; even Jaques goes off to philosophize in tandem.
“Sweet are the uses of adversity,” argues the good Duke. Freewill, a company of impressive ingenuity, has had a lot of experience in that department. You’ll have fun at this show, and Louise McKinney Park is a congenial setting…. Back to Hawrelak next summer if all’s well that ends well with their fund-raising campaign.
REVIEW
As You Like It
Freewill Shakespeare Festival
Directed and adapted by: David Horak
Starring: Mhairi Berg, Amber Borotsik, Brennan Campbell, Nadien Chu, Braydon Dowler-Coltman, Alexandra Lainfiesta, Dayna Lee Hoffmann, Ian Leung, Josh Meredith, Troy O’Donnell, Cody Porter, Elena Porter
Where: Louise McKinney Riverfront Park, 9999 Grierson Hill
Running: through July 20
Tickets: freewill.bespoketicketing.com
