As You Like It
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As You Like It Details
'All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players'Rosalind, banished by her cruel uncle, travels secretly to the Forest of Arden, where her exiled father holds court. There, dressed as a boy to avoid discovery, she encounters the man she loves - now a fellow exile - and resolves to remain in disguise to test his feelings for her. One of Shakespeare's most sunny, fast-paced and accessible comedies, As You Like It is an exuberant combination of concealed identities and verbal jousting, burlesque and pastoral dream, reconciliations and multiple weddings.Used and Recommended by the National TheatreGeneral Editor Stanley WellsEdited by H. J. Oliver Introduction by Katherine Duncan-Jones
Reviews
The English word personality ultimately derives from the personas, or masks, that Greek actors wore when performing in the theaters of ancient Attica. This seems to imply that much of how we act is precisely that: an act that is distinct from our true character.Shakespeare himself seems to hold a similartheory in As You Like It. Rosalind and Celia don male costumes and act parts that lead to the successful resolution of the dramedy. Of course, in As You Like It the clown makes the famous speech of “All the worlds a stage.”As I read it, this speech is completely apropos within the play. Shakespeare is saying that we are all actors in life whether we climb the stage or not. An interesting theory and one that seems amenable to treatment by academic psychology in a modern context.Delightful as a work of art as well as an dramatization of a theory which still has import, As You Like It is yet another Shakespearean masterpiece.