As You Like It is one of Shakespeare’s romantic comedies in which a woman outsmarts a man, in part by disguising herself as a man.
Shakespeare wrote some great women’s roles, including this one – Rosalind. But women make up less than 20 percent of Shakespeare’s almost 1000 characters, probably because female performers were banned from the stage and their roles were played by boys.
In Center Stage’s current production, director Wendy C. Goldberg – a new-play specialist -- does her bit to even the score by using an all-female cast. This is nothing new. There are women-only Shakespeare companies and locally, the Baltimore Shakespeare Factory did an all-female Henry IV during last summer’s ParityFest.
But central as this casting may be to director Goldberg’s concept, her production’s hip style makes the strongest impression.
She starts things off with the cast doing regimented Emo choreography to Electronic Dance Music. Costume designer Anne Kennedy dresses the actors in high-fashion black. Their expressions are fierce. This is life at court -- severe, controlled, a little scary.
Here, brothers hate brothers -- the ruling duke has seized power from and banished his brother. He then banishes his niece, Rosalind, and his daughter chooses to go with her.
For safety’s sake, Rosalind dresses as a man, and they head for the forest. The forest also turns out to be a haven for Rosalind’s banished father and for her love interest, Orlando – who’s on the run from his own hateful brother.
The country proves far more carefree than the court. Rosalind’s father and his followers live and dress like hippies. Angela Reed plays melancholy Jaques as a stoner in dreadlocks. And accompanied on a boom box, the crew sings folksy renditions of Shakespeare’s songs, composed by Matt Hubbs.
You don’t forget you’re watching women playing men – but that amplifies Shakespeare’s theme of the mutable nature of gender.
Consider the famous scene in which Rosalind -- pretending to be a man -- promises to “cure” lovesick Orlando. The “cure” causes them to fall deeper in love. This production adds another layer to the script’s joke about gender confusion.
Julia Coffey’s Rosalind is resolute and independent. Sofia Jean Gomez’s Orlando starts out bitter, but becomes irrepressibly joyful in love. They’re the romantic model for the play’s three other amorous couples. But those couples are way overpowered by Rosalind and Orlando in this version, adapted by Gavin Witt.
His adaptation tightens the script and reorders some scenes. The court scenes, for example, are now grouped together at the beginning. Court is inhospitable and once we leave, we never have to go back.
Set designer Arnulfo Maldonado uses a rigid wooden structure for the scenes at court. In the country, this structure is replaced by a birch-tree forest, tents and lawn chairs.
Just as the play moves from court to country, Center Stage has -- temporarily -- moved from city to county. While its Calvert Street building is being renovated, the theater is in residence at Towson University, and a half dozen students ably play ensemble roles.
Center Stage’s feminist take honors the original tradition of single-sex casting and subverts it at same time. Does this girls’ night out succeed? Like Rosalind herself, it’s smart, funny and challenges gender stereotypes. It’s a likeable As You Like It, and stylistically, it’s a beaut.
