As You Like It review – French aristocratic trappings bring fresh comedy to Arden

Shakespeare’s Globe, London In a lively and deftly designed production, gowns and wigs fit for Versailles give way to plainer disguises as banished courtiers pursue happiness in the country For a play that pivots around the liberating disguises inside Arden’s bucolia, this production of the Bard’s pastoral comedy begins the dress-up long before its characters enter the forest for their games on gender and identity.

Duke Frederick’s court resembles that of Louis XVI’s Versailles, with flamboyant gesticulations that seem to belong to Molière.

It is Shakespeare, but it could be a French period romp.

Costumes become plainer and more earthy in Arden.

Is there a suggestion that these characters live their courtly lives in a constant state of disguise? Continue reading...