Shakespeare As You Like It

Director Thea Sharrock
Designer Dick Bird
Music Stephen Warbeck Musicians: Rob Miller, Ben Grove, Tracy Holloway,David Powell and Dai Pritchar Directed by Rob Millett
Choreographer Fin Walker Fights Kevin McCurdy

Duke Frederick: Brendon Hughes Orlando: Jack Laskey Adam: Trevor Martin Oliver: Jamie Parker Rosalind: Naomi Frederick Celia: Laura Rogers Touchstone: Dominic Rowan Le Beau: Gregory Gudgeon Charles: Sean Kearns Duke Senior: Philip Bird Amiens: Peter Gale Corin: Sean Kearns Silvius: Michael Benz Jaques: Tim McMullan Audrey: Sophie Duval William: Gregory Gudgeon Sir Oliver Martext: Peter Gale Phebe: Jade Williams Hymen: Ewart James Walters

Filmed live at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, London, 6 & 8 October 2009
DVD Producer James Whitbourn Booklet Editor Charlotte Grey

Opus Arte DVD OA 1032- D

Hard on the heels of Opus Arte's Romeo & Juliet comes the release of As You Like It, filmed brilliantly amongst happy and responsive audiences at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

It is sheer joy, and there a few theatre DVDs which bring you so close that you really feel you are in this glorious space, one of London's greatest treasures for hosting live theatre.

It definitely helps to have actually been there, and best to have stood amongst the groundlings around the stage. But it is undeniably more comfortable at home where the sound engineering and camera viewpoints ensure that you see and hear everything perfectly.

There are optional subtitles, which many will find helpful (as we do always for opera in English) though the clarity of story telling is exemplary, as is an excellent note by Gwilym Jones. The music is suitably eclectic and in its various guises appreciated by today's Shakespeare audience. Extras include 30 "famous speeches" which will be useful for study purposes and a pleasure for refreshing memories of the high points of the film when there may not be time to see the whole thing through again.

Our feelings are anticipated so exactly by Charles Spencer too that I leave you with the link to his review in The Telegraph and, for the DVD, I'd raise his four stars to *****.

Peter Grahame Woolf

See also Music Web review - - no slow moments here, as a fine team of actors brings the forest of Arden to the bare stage of the Globe - - one feels immersed in the intimacy of the theatre - - a must-have for any fan of Shakespeare.

And see Musical Pointers review of Romeo & Juliet DVD

Photos: Jack Laskey (Orlando) and Naomi Frederick (Rosalind) ALASTAIR MUIR