Photo courtesy of J. Stubbs Photography (https://jstubbsphotographyvb.com/)

Is there a limit to the number of couples that I can shoe-horn into a play with a single wedding at the end?  And can I make the play still appealing to those who hate love by adding a character whose whole deal is to be a foil to the romance and silliness that is going on around him?  And can I do all of that while still including at least fifteen dick jokes?  That is the challenge William Shakespeare seems to have laid out for himself when sitting down to write “As You Like It”, playing now (in a slightly edited version from the original) at the Little Theatre of Norfolk.

Ok, that is a little tough of me – the bard probably deserves more respect than that.  But this is one of Shakespeare’s comedies after all, and so comedic is what you get in a review (at least for a paragraph).  In all seriousness, there are many actually interesting characters in this show.  Orlando (played by Iz Villas) is at the top of that list, as from the moment we meet him, he is struggling with society’s expectations for him, and so, to garner the respect he deserves, he has decided to enter a wrestling match against the famed Charles the Wrestler.  Charles is played intimidatingly and hilariously hyper-sexualized by Jaxon Arthur, who is not someone I’d want to have a thumb war with, not to mention a full-on “no holds barred” wrestling match.  Villas and Arthur do a wonderful job with the physicality of the wrestling match, and, shockingly, Villas as Orlando pulls off the upset – catching the eye of the beautiful Rosalind.  But this is just Act 1 – so of course, there is no happily ever after yet.  Instead – Orlando flees into the forest as his house gets burned to the ground by his jealous brother Oliver.  And it turns out the Duke (who usurped the duchy a few years back) absolutely frikkin’ hates Orlando’s father – so when he hears that Rosalind is falling in love with Orlando – it’s a fate of banishment for her. 

But – Rosalind has friends, and girls stick together.  So, Rosalind (played by multi-time HRACT Award nominee Ashe Rory) and her best friend/the Duke’s daughter Celia (played by Alicia Searles) run into the forest – yes, that same forest that Orlando is in.  They also bring along the court fool Touchstone, who is just a straight hilarious addition to the crew, with Cassandra Dean fully buying into the role (I especially loved her mischievous laugh as she ran across the stage in no particular direction).  And they decide that the best way to stay hidden from the Duke is to take on assumed identities – which means, notably, that Rosalind will pretend to be a man (and you can see how that might cause complications when Orlando and Rosalind, in disguise, inevitably cross paths later).

Well, as it turns out, this is just about the most populated forest I’ve ever seen, as there is a whole town of people in there, including a shepherd who just wants to get married, the recently deposed Duchess, a landowner who happens to have a cottage for those fleeing town to purchase, a whole cadre of characters played in consistently hilarious fashion by the rest of the ensemble, and the canonically melancholy Jaques (who, while yes being a bummer, is brought to life by actor Adonis Bastin, and Bastin does a wonderful and moving job with one of Shakespeare’s most famous speeches, “All The World’s A Stage”).  It might even be enough characters to support an attempt at a triple… or maybe even quadruple… wedding at the end.  It’s a true ensemble piece, and director Z.F. Norris has done a good job of getting their cast to use inflection and physicality to tell the story rather than relying on the Elizabethan words and metaphors, which can be hard to grasp for a Shakespeare newcomer without those notes in the margins of your textbook. 

It’s the little moments of fun which stuck out to me in this show.  It was Rory, as Rosalind, crying dramatically into Searles’ lap and Searles, as Celia, telling Rory to buck up.  It was Villas, as Orlando, posting crappy poetry throughout the forest, and telling Phoebe to marry Silvius because she should “sell where you can, you aren’t for all markets”.  It was the sudden and unexpected appearance of a bed, right on time, to be used for its… secondary purpose.  It was Arthur, at the time playing the role of a lackey to the Duke, falling to their knees in pain after being struck by a tertiary character and ever so slowly getting up in the background of a scene long after their reason for being on stage had passed.  And it was the comedic genius of Shakespeare combined with the impeccable timing of the cast, as they each confess their chain of love, with Rory (as Rosalind, but currently disguised as the man Ganymede) exclaiming “And I… for no woman”.

The plot of “As You Like It” may be romantic nonsense, but it is the characters and their individual stories, touching on identity and conformity (or lack thereof), which continue to resonate today.  And of course Shakespeare’s consistently clever wordplay.  Oh, and the dick jokes.  The many, many dick jokes, as pointed out in the content warning.  Old Billy Shakes was never one to shy away from the funniest part of the male anatomy.