As You Wish

The Globe theatre performance of As You Like It by William Shakespeare was impressive. I can only imagine what it must be like to stand in that audience and I can’t wait to go and see Much Ado About Nothing there in 10 days. What made the performance so special were partly the amazing actors. While reading the play I didn’t understand half of what it was saying but with the tone of the actor’s voices and their movements and facial expressions were really fun to watch. They incorporated the elements of Shakespearian theatre such as minimalistic sets and realistic characters in a way that I didn’t think was possible. The interaction with the audience was equally well done as the actors walked into the audience and even pointed at some people when talking about a woman or a boy. In theatre language this is called breaking the forth wall, the forth wall being the invisible barrier between the audience and the actors. It’s a way of making the audience feel like they’re part of something, a practice that is very Brechtian.  What I found interesting was that the director chose to change up some scenes like Act 1 scene 2 with the second part of Act 1 scene 1, and to combine two characters into one such as Amiens and the First Lord in Act 2. This makes sense because it facilitates the understanding of the flow of the story and it’s also smart to always let the same person be the singer and entertainer like Amiens and the First Lord. The costumes were an attraction in itself, especially Rosalind’s and Celia’s dresses in Act 1. All of the costumes were perfectly well adapted to the characters and I felt like it helped the audience to understand the characters a little better.