{"id":245242,"date":"2012-08-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-03T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/shakespeares-sunniest-comedy\/"},"modified":"2012-08-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-08-03T07:00:00","slug":"shakespeares-sunniest-comedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/shakespeares-sunniest-comedy\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakespeare\u2019s sunniest comedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cAs You Like It\u201d<\/strong>
\nWHERE: The Old Globe Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park<\/strong>
\nWHEN: In repertory through Sept. 30; various dates at 8 p.m.<\/strong>
\nINFO: 619-234-5623<\/strong>
\nWEB: theoldglobe.org<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018As You Like It\u2019 lovely to watch, divine to hear thanks to festival\u2019s winning staff<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Shakespeare\u2019s
The cast of this year\u2019s \u2018As You Like It\u2019 (Photo by Henry DiRocco)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Por Charlene Baldridge | Cr\u00edtico de Teatro SDUN<\/strong><\/p>\n

All is right with the world. It\u2019s summertime and the play\u2019s the thing. The comedy has opened to juxtapose tragedy at the Old Globe\u2019s 2012 Shakespeare Festival, which continues through September 30 at the outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre in Balboa Park.<\/p>\n

Bound to be enormously popular in this staging by Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Adrian Noble, the Bard\u2019s sunniest comedy, \u201cAs You Like It,\u201d is lovely to look at and divine to hear, with splendid original music by Shaun Davey that falls easily on the ear.<\/p>\n

Not without dark imagery, \u201cAs You Like It\u201d is set circa 1930 in a neither-here-nor-there country where dukes still reign and, in order to seize land and power, even send their own brothers into exile.<\/p>\n

The tyrannical Duke Frederick (played by Happy Anderson) has done just that to his sibling, Duke Senior (Bob Pescovitz), who now lives with a band of starving friends in the Forest of Arden, where winters are tough. Among Duke Senior\u2019s men is the melancholy Jaques (Jacques C. Smith), who delivers the familiar speech that begins \u201cAll the world\u2019s a stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, back at Frederick\u2019s court, Senior\u2019s daughter, Rosalind (tall, slim Dana Green), lives like a sister with her cousin Celia (vivacious Vivia Font). In a parallel sibling-rivalry plot, the villainous Oliver (Jay Whittaker) causes his more popular brother, Orlando (Dan Amboyer), to flee from Duke Frederick\u2019s wrath. Orlando\u2019s faithful retainer, the aged Adam (Charles Janasz), accompanies him.<\/p>\n

In a fit of pique and insecurity, Duke Frederick banishes Rosalind, and Celia flees with her \u201ccoz,\u201d taking the court clown Touchstone (Joseph Marcell) along with them. Rosalind adopts male attire, henceforth known as the youthful Ganymede. Celia becomes the simple maiden, Aliena. Their first encounter is with the shepherd, Corin (Adrian Sparks), who helps them find a dwelling.<\/p>\n

All the new exiles collide with established Arden exiles and longtime denizens, creating numerous alliances and complications, not the least of which is Rosalind\u2019s guise as a guy. In the end, love and forgiveness reign, the bad guys are redeemed, the lovers are united and everyone is happy, with the exception of the badly used Duke Senior and the melancholy Jaques. Both go off companionably into self-imposed spiritual exile. What\u2019s a happy ending if not contrasted with a bit of sadness?<\/p>\n

Under the guidance of music director Elan McMahan, Davey\u2019s original music permeates the production, as sung by likable Adam Daveline as Amiens, one of those in Senior\u2019s retinue. A student in the Old Globe and University of San Diego master\u2019s in fine arts program, the versatile Daveline possesses a resonant baritone, plays the mandolin and creates a marvelous country parson as well. When the entire company sings, it is thrilling indeed.<\/p>\n

Additional comedy is provided by MFA students portraying country dwellers Audrey (Danielle O\u2019Farrell), Phoebe (Allison Spratt Pearce) and Phoebe\u2019s swain, Silvius (outstandingly natural Christopher Salazar).<\/p>\n

Amboyer, who portrays the Earl of Richmond in \u201cRichard III\u201d and attorney Bertram Cates (the John Scopes character) in \u201cInherit the Wind,\u201d \u2013 the other two productions in repertory \u2013 is an appealing Orlando. If he seems particularly callow alongside the canny Rosalind, this is built into the role. Granted, the character of Orlando, though he may be handsome, is no match for Rosalind\u2019s wit. The poetry he writes and posts on trees is bad. That\u2019s part of the joke. To make up for this, Orlando must radiate irresistible sexual heat; Amboyer isn\u2019t quite there yet.<\/p>\n

Green is every inch the swaggering youth. Her voice, physicality and self-congratulatory joy are splendid indeed; however, this production belongs to Font\u2019s grounded and energetic Celia, to Smith\u2019s unusual, seemingly sane Jaques, and to all the deliciously limned bumpkins, clowns and philosophers.<\/p>\n

Ralph Funicello\u2019s spare scenic design welcomes parades, a field of snow that later becomes spring sky, glowing lanterns, quickly laid tables and, rising from the trap, a wrestling ring. Deirdre Clancy\u2019s costumes are clever for the clowns and ravishing for the ladies, whether in court or country. Rosalind\u2019s Ganymede getup is fetching. Alan Burrett\u2019s lighting creates magic and Lindsay Jones\u2019s sound design, with subtly microphoned actors, makes the arrival of the trash truck on opening night a trivial distraction. Blessedly, there were no airplanes.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAs You Like It\u201d WHERE: The Old Globe Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park WHEN: In repertory through Sept. 30; various dates at 8 p.m. INFO: 619-234-5623 WEB: theoldglobe.org \u2018As You Like It\u2019 lovely to watch, divine to hear thanks to festival\u2019s winning staff By Charlene Baldridge | SDUN Theater Critic All is right […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":245243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Shakespeare\u2019s sunniest comedy","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}