Ailsa and Lucy talk about As You Like It
Ailsa Joy, who plays Celia and Phebe in our upcoming show, talks about Shakespeare’s Best Play About Love:
When I was a love-sick nineteen-year-old, I remember coming across the quote, “Love is merely a madness, and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do; and the reason why they are not so punished and cured is that the lunacy is so ordinary that the whippers are in love too.” It was so comforting! It perfectly captured my madness then, sitting on the kitchen floor crying, longing for a text message from an unhaveable man.
My Mum told me it originated from As You Like It. We’d been sorting through her collection of old theatre programmes. In 1980 she’d seen Susan Fleetwood as Rosalind with Sinéad Cusack as Celia; and the RSC’s 1992 production with Alan Cox as Jacques. She took me to watch Katy Stephens and Mariah Gale as Rosalind and Celia and the look they share at the end of the play across the wedding party is still up there with my favourite moments in theatre. And this year I get to be in an As You Like It too! I’m beside myself with happiness!
The Story: Orlando and Oliver are brothers but Orlando was not permitted a gentleman’s upbringing. To try and win his honour, he challenges a court wrestler. Out of hatred, Oliver encourages the wrestler to kill Orlando. But Orlando, against the odds, wins! Much to the displeasure of the Duke who isn’t best pleased with his court wrestler. Nor when he discovers Orlando is the son of an old enemy. The Duke’s niece Rosalind is daughter to another traitor and he decides to exile her too. His daughter Celia follows her out of love. They all end up in the Forest of Arden. Rosalind disguises herself as a man. When she comes upon Orlando— the handsome challenger she saw wrestle— she decides to put his love to the test.
It’s all desperately romantic. It’s also very daft. Which is pretty apt. Fools fall for goatherds and pitiful shepherds fall for the wrong people. There’s unrequited love, lust, courting, the love between friends, familial love and plenty of love at first sight.
I’ve been on my worst behaviour when I’ve been in love. Especially the first time round! As Silvius the shepherd tries to put it into words:
“It is to be all made of fantasy,
All made of passion, and all made of wishes;
All adoration, duty, and observance,
All humbleness, all patience, and impatience,
All purity, all trial, all obedience”
Orlando pins bad poems about Rosalind on the trees. People keep erupting into song! And honestly, is there a better burn in Shakespeare than:
“Sell when you can; you are not for all markets?”
It’s my favourite love story out of all his plays. There are moments in rehearsals when I want to sit and just listen to the speeches! I’m older and wiser than the heartsore teenager on the kitchen floor but As You Like It still brings me to a standstill.
You should come and watch it too. As Rosalind says, “The sight of lovers feedeth those in love.”
We also interviewed Lucy Pitman-Wallace, Director of As You Like It and she has made a video for us too all about love!
1) Can you tell us about your interpretation of the play?
My vision for the play is formal 1950s for the Court and the Forest of Arden is 1970s Summer of Love. There is a sense that the world goes from black and white into colour and love.
2) Which character do you think is unfairly overlooked or underrated?
Celia because she is very present at the beginning of the play and then she fades away in the second half.
3) Is there a character you relate to on a personal level?
I relate to Jacques who is an outsider and surveys the characters at a slight distance. This feels like my job as director.
4) Which character are you rooting for in the play?
Orlando because I want him to get the girl.
5) Which characters do you wish had a scene together that don’t interact in the play?
It would be lovely to see Audrey the goatherd together with Madam Le Beau the court fixer. What would they make of each other?
6) What is it like staging the play with a cast of 6 actors?
It is great fun seeing the actors playing contrasting parts like Celia and Phoebe. The only challenge we have is making sure the actors achieve their quick changes and don’t arrive in a scene as the wrong character! Fortunately I have a cracking ensemble to work with.