Shakespeare's 'As You Like It,' as you've never seen it before

In the program notes, Gobel justifies her directorial choice by explaining that she wanted to recreate "what happens when the world with which we are familiar is yanked out from under our feet." The intent is admirable enough, but the problem is that "As You Like It" hinges on its setting in the forest of Arden, a place of almost magical mishap, refuge and transformation that does not satisfactorily find its 20th-century equivalent in a shantytown on the outskirts of New York. The self-conscious gesture to today's economic downturn is duly noted, but with the almost nonexistent use of background and setting, the play winds up as a somewhat perplexing collection of figures scampering about the stage in flapper dresses and double-breasted mobster suits, spouting Shakespeare.

In an attempt to fit the play to its modern location, jazzy tunes play between scenes and several of Shakespeare's poems are adapted into yankee-doodle-style songs. While the jazz music lends a lively air to what was no doubt written as an energetic and animated piece of theater, the conversion of Shakespeare's verse into country tunes is - as you might expect - rather grating on the ear.

That said, amid the scampering and the grating glistens a commendable ensemble of actors. Stephen Martis '12 plays a slimy, evil and deliciously misogynistic Oliver, whose victimized younger brother Orlando (Marshall Everett '11) is an endearingly and often comically lovesick youth, stumbling over his words as he woes his love and fanatically scribbles very bad poetry. At his side is his faithful old servant, Adam (Elizabeth Swanson '12), wheezing and heaving, also to great comic effect. The fight between Orlando and wrestler Charles (Josh Zeitlin '11) is successfully staged with the cheering fans interspersed throughout the theater to create the sense that the play's audience is also made spectator to the wrestling match.

Stacy Testa '10, in the role of Celia, plays a fiercely loyal and slightly mischievous cousin to Rosalind (Laura Fletcher '10), and the friendship the two girls enact is one of the most convincing and engaging aspects of the production. At once steadfast in their affection for each other and decidedly frivolous, dissolving into giggles as they discuss the hunky Orlando, the two actresses bring the childhood friendship envisioned in Shakespeare's verse vividly to life. For her own part, Fletcher succeeds in juggling the nuances of playing a woman playing a man (who, occasionally, even plays a woman again), though at times her attempts at uncertain boyish swagger just make her look jittery.

Veronica Siverd '10 presents a truly deranged Phebe, moaning and dashing across the stage as one lover chases her and she chases another, while Matt Prast '12 plays the faithful, if somewhat simplistic, Silvius, ever-devoted to Phebe. Isaac Engels ‘11 provided a moderately amusing court fool, Touchstone, following dutifully in the wake of Rosalind and Celia, though among the comic depictions of other characters, he is by no means the highlight of the play's witty and fun-loving turns.

Aside from Rosalind's grief at her banishment from her uncle's court and the occasional difficulties of disguised lovers, the sole sobering moment of the production came with Jacques' (Nicholas Hybel '12) oft-quoted speech, "All the world's a stage." Hybel commanded the verse with delicacy and succeeded in rendering shantytown dwellers and audience members alike silent and still as they contemplated the seven stages of a man's life. In a move from the solemn back to the comic, his speech was quickly swallowed up by the laughter of his listeners, a bold directorial decision that was successfully executed.

The Princeton Shakespeare Company's production of "As You Like It" ends in "rustic revelry," to borrow a phrase from the play, with the four happy couples dancing and then momentarily freezing mid-boogie while Rosalind steps forward to deliver her closing lines. Jazz music, combined with several vivid and amusing performances makes for a lively, rambunctious theater experience; indeed, the overriding sense of revelry and comic energy manage, for the most part, to redeem the jarring modernization attempt. The play is perhaps not, as the director promises, just as you'd like it, but if one can look past the 1920s garb and country jingles, it doesn't hit disappointingly far off either.

Pros Terrific ensemble cast, with several hilarious performances.