Point Park University's As You Like It: A Review

In November I had the pleasure of seeing As You Like it by William Shakespeare. I was a little skeptical at first because I'm not the biggest fan of his work.. not because I necessarily dislike it, it's just not my cup of tea. I find that he uses very roundabout dialogue that makes the plot more confusing to the audience and the work, overall, less enjoyable. With As You Like It I was very pleasantly surprised! It wasn't hard to follow and the language was constructed in a way that was very witty and appealing to the audience. The show is built on a basic love story plot but with a twist that includes many cooky characters and interesting turns along the way. 

On a voice and speech level I found a lot interesting things that the actors did that I never would have noticed before taking the class. The actor who played Adam obviously wasn’t an older gentleman but was able to change his voice in a way that was transformative to his character. He definitely used slack folds to make his voice come out a little more breathy, which added to the character greatly. He was one of the oldest characters in the show and it was very interesting to see how just a slight adjustment in placement and compression can change an actor’s presence entirely. Another character that used voice and speech techniques onstage was the actor who played Charles. His character was an upperclass wrestler and the actor used his voice to add to the way audience viewed Charles. He changed the placement of the tone by placing it in the soft palette and kind of forward. This change made him seem ultimately more well off and snobbish which helped his character a lot. This placement and the presence it created became even more apparent when he entered the stage as a different character, Corin, he didn’t even have a similar speech pattern. I was very impressed! 

The show as a whole was very enjoyable because the way the actors were directed to speak. Yes, they were performing Shakespeare, but the actors did not speak the text as though they were on BBC and over-pronunciate every single word. Instead they spoke as though they were in modern times and the language was very lax and common for the period. That was probably my favorite part of the show because I think Shakespeare previously bothered me because of the way people performed it. I agree that Shakespeare’s language and meter is an art form but if the words were being spoken in real life, even in that time period, they would not be overdone. As You Like It definitely changed my view on Shakespeare. If every Shakespearean play was performed like this production.. I could see myself liking… even LOVING Shakespeare.