As Who Liked It | Juliet Dusinberre, Girton College, Cambridge
Juliet Dusinberre, Girton College, Cambridge
Bernard Shaw wrote on 4 October 1897 that the Shakespearian producer Augustin Daly 'was in full force at the Islington Theatre on Monday evening last with his version of "As You Like It" just as I don't like it'.1 Surprisingly, the reaction of many people in the late twentieth century to this most actable of plays is often one of disappointment. The actress Juliet Stevenson, who played Rosalind in 1985, complained of productions which offered ' "a rural romp in an Arden full of polystyrene logs" ' and protests: 'I'd always suspected that there's a much more dangerous play in As You Like It.'2 The 1990 Cheek by Jowl all-male production was greeted ecstatically by both male actors and male critics: Adrian Lester's Rosalind was voted 'sexy' and exciting. Men liked it. But what about women? If a woman's voice was raised in the critical debate, I missed it. In the past, of course, there...
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