Reviewed by Dr. Aidan Elliott, Department of English

In 1961 the newly-created Royal Shakespeare Company chose As You Like It as one of its first productions; Peter Hall asked Michael Elliott to direct it; and he, in turn, cast a 24-year-old Vanessa Redgrave to play Rosalind: all three choices proved to be inspired and helped to create a production that attracted what Robert Smallwood described as the ‘most ecstatic set of reviews of any post-war Stratford production’. Fortunately for future generations the RSC chose to film the production after it had completed a two-year run (in Stratford and London) and it still retains the power to hold an audience some 53 years later.

There are strong performances from many of the cast: Rosalind Knight is a witty and ironic Celia who makes light of her relative lack of attractiveness; and Patrick Allen is an intense and sincere Orlando. But the production is illuminated by the sheer power and vivacity of Redgrave: in her characterisation of Rosalind there is no post-modern irony or cynical distancing; no love moderated by caution – she has a passion for Orlando that can barely be controlled. When she sees him fling Charles the wrestler across the floor her excitement is palpable: the words ‘O, excellent young man!’ burst out and her arms whirl around. It was this passion that led the Guardian’s theatre critic Michael Billington to write, in a retrospective review in 2015, that in the intervening years he he had ‘never seen […] a more exciting demonstration of the ecstasy of love’ and the ‘poleaxing effect of passion’.

That said, this is a production of its time: it is essentially a filmed play (as opposed to a film), which is based on Michael Elliott’s original stage production and directed for television by Ronald Eyre. It is shot in black and white on a very simple set and it is hard not to notice the prefabricated nature of the forest; the sound of the actors’ feet is intrusive as they stamp around a wooden forest floor that appears to be made of large sheets of plywood; there is little use of non-diegetic sound and Eyre makes overly-extensive use of extreme close-ups that become rather oppressive. However, it should also be said that the primitive nature of the set and the use of close-ups do have the virtue of concentrating the mind on the actors’ faces and the power of the spoken word: this is particularly notable when compared to modern television where a greater value seems to be placed on emotion than verbal clarity.

On balance this is a delightful filmed Shakespeare: it held the attention and showed, once again, the value of letting the actors work without being overwhelmed by the setting or intrusive direction. It is recommended viewing and has just been made available online (for teachers, students, academics and researchers based in UK educational establishments) as part of the BBC Shakespeare Archive.

Resources/Reviews

BBC Shakespeare Archive – As You Like It (1963) – available free online to UK schools
http://shakespeare.ch.bbc.co.uk/resources/LDP5033T.en

The Guardian (retrospective review, April 2015):
http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/apr/27/vanessa-redgrave-rosalind-as-you-like-it

Smallwood, Robert, Shakespeare at Stratford: As You Like It, (London: Thomson Learning, 2003)