By Mervyn Rothstein
23 Nov 2009
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| As You Like It stars Francesca Faridany and John Behlmann |
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| photo by Scott Suchman |
The director of The 39 Steps puts As You Like It in the conceptual setting of a Hollywood sound stage.
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Maria Aitken is directing As You Like It at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC, so perhaps it's appropriate that she's decided to move the setting to the United States.
And since the movies have been so much a part of this country's history, why not bring in "Gone With the Wind," Busby Berkeley, John Wayne, "Show Boat" and "There Will Be Blood"? Seems a natural progression for director Aitken, a Tony nominee for The 39 Steps, a comic homage to an Alfred Hitchcock film. And then, for an added fillip, why not bring in original music by Michael John LaChiusa?
As You Like It is a typical Shakespearean comedy, with confused identities, disguises and love. And of course there's a woman — in this case the inspiring romantic heroine Rosalind — who dresses as a man, as she seeks her father, who has been banished to the Forest of Arden. For Aitken, the key to the play is Arden, that woodland of exile, where characters wander. "Arden is not really a place," she says. "It's an idea — an idea of aspiration."
She continues, "I used to teach at the Juilliard School for Michael Kahn," who was the head of the Juilliard Drama Division and is the Shakespeare Theatre's artistic director. "I did a production of As You Like It with second-year students in a room, and it contained a kernel of a concept. He never forgot it, and he asked me to come down and direct the play. The original idea I had is that Arden is a place for immigrants, a place for exile, where their hopes and visions come true. So why shouldn't it be America?"
After all, Aitken says, "in the play Celia declares that they are going 'to liberty, and not to banishment.' America is the embodiment of liberty, and the place to which so many people sought exile. Generations have seen that immigrants' dream mythologized in film."
So the play is set on a sound stage. "It's as if we're shooting a film. We move through many historical periods — the American Revolution, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Mississippi show boat era — with film references to those periods, including 'Gone With the Wind,' John Wayne in Monument Valley, 'Show Boat,' the oil boom of 'There Will Be Blood,' and a Busby Berkeley film."
The characters "arrive in Jamestown and wind up in Hollywood in the 1930s. I haven't altered the text. I've discovered that the scenes fit these locations very well. They've been carefully chosen for that."
Scenes have been reordered, and Aitken shows different styles of filmmaking. "We begin with a prequel in which Rosalind sees her father being dragged away, exiled to Arden. That will be a silent movie. We will go on to a black and white movie, and then to making a movie about America."
Aitken's creative team includes two Tony winners: scenic designer Derek McLane (who won this year for 33 Variations) and costume designer Martin Pakledinaz (Thoroughly Modern Millie; Kiss Me, Kate). Then there's LaChiusa (The Wild Party, Marie Christine), whose music will reflect the different eras.
"He goes from [Renaissance composer] Palestrina to Cole Porter," Aitken says.
Aitken played Rosalind when she was younger, and has directed the play three times, including at Regent's Park in London. This version, she says, "is a love letter to America.
"It's one of the few plays I'd happily muck about in. There are many, many ways of presenting what Arden is. The title As You Like It means what it says."
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| The cast of As You Like It at Shakespeare Theatre Company
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| photo by Scott Suchman |
