A Little Shakespeare: As You Like It

As You Like It is a play for romantics. Girl falls in love. Girl dresses like boy and flees to a forest where she meets her love again. A story known too well, perhaps.

But, in contrast, it also holds one of Shakespeare’s most original cynics. Overwhelmed by the seeming bleakness of life, Jaques stays apart, critical and judgmental of the joy others find. He is a true original, as equally celebratory of his melancholy and yet paying the price with his unfortunate inability to participate in the pleasures life has to offer.

I must confess, amidst my own struggles in this working-day world, it is not unusual for me to relate with the clownish Jaques. I shake my head at the foolishness and impermanence of all life and love have to offer. Yet, fortunately for all of us, Jaques and my cynical alter-ego are decisively wrong. And I have had the good fortune of working on a play that rebels against this perception. Gender roles, nature, and politics are confused to reflect on how bewildering yet joyous life can be. It is a play that celebrates a world where triumphant love cannot be denied and where brotherhood has the power to restore all to its rightful place. What more could move a cynic to change? So, for this brief hour, I invite you to join us, leave your fear and doubt behind, and embrace a place of wonder and harmony. You won’t regret it.

—Jason McDowell-Green, Director