I am pleased to report a rising company of young-ish actors doing first-rate work: a conceptually cohesive, intimate, spunky, charming staging of a pastoral Shakespeare comedy all too easy to screw up (I vividly recall a painful mess a dozen years ago by an area troupe with at least 50x their budget and TV stars in the cast). Brave Spirits’ As You Like It is a heartwarming treat.
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. There’s cross-pollination with an emerging company on the opposite end of the Beltway currently punching above its weight class: Artistic Director Charlene Smith and Jared Graham, who plays Touchstone, were the Macbeths in 4615’s inspired production last fall in Silver Spring.
As You Like It ends with a quadruple wedding, as four very different types of relationships, some courtly, some one-sided, some overtly physical, all come together in comically improbable ways. The spacious Lab at Convergence, a church dedicated to “exploring the intersection of the arts, faith and human experience”, is set up galley-style, with two front rows of cabaret tables. It’s supposed to evoke a wedding reception, complete with the cast coming out to greet the audience like old friends, though it felt a bit like compulsory audience participation. Even if the wedding theme doesn’t fully translate, the space nonetheless effectively transports us all into the magical forest of Arden where more than one mean older brother becomes kind, and love (eventually) conquers all.[ezcol_1third]
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As You Like It
closes April 27, 2019
Details and tickets
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Director Jessica Aimone has assembled a very solid ensemble who are all on the same page; she keeps the action flowing and all the disparate technical, artistic and thematic elements in impressive equilibrium. The set (Aimone again), lighting (Jason Aufdem-Brinke) and costumes (Adalia Tonneyck) evoke a breezy, contemporary magical realism, from the chicken wire trees with hundreds of scrolls stuck in them down to Touchstone’s bowler hat and white gloves evocative of Magritte. This is an admirably unified show.
Aimone also employs very specific double-casting; the evil Duke Frederick and his brother the kindly Duke Senior (Ian Blackwell Rogers), the wrestler Charles and the melancholy Jacques (Megan Reichelt), and the entourages of the two Dukes, icy and angular at court, languid and placid in the woods.
Ben Peter and Farrell Parker are solid, engaging co-leads as Orlando and Rosalind. Peter in particular has a charisma and quiet, grounded confidence – especially impressive for a young man still in his BFA program – which marks him as an actor to watch. Parker and Rebecca Speas, as Celia, have a fun chemistry as the cousins/besties wandering the forest. Ian Blackwell Rogers, as the Dukes, gives the impression of a person who fell through a space/time wormhole from 1601, found good company amongst the Brave Spirits, and decided to stay. Daniel Westbrook and Amber A. Gibson as Silvius and Phoebe are charming archetypes of a decidedly one-sided love affair.
Megan Reichelt gives an impressively athletic performance as Charles the Wrestler – although dwarfed by Peter and his broad shoulders, she is more than a match (kudos as well to Casey Kaleba’s fight choreography) – and as a lucid, wistful Jacques; she nails the iconic Seven Ages Of Man speech.
Jared Graham gives an impressively nimble performance as Touchstone, and cuts a dashing figure in his bespoke suit, bowler and gloves. Brendan Edward Kennedy is – until he enters the forest, at least – the epitome of a privileged and spiteful older brother. Anderson Wells is exactly as described in the program, a fabulous courtier, among other solid supporting roles. Charlie Cook impresses with a wide variety of physically and vocally distinctive characters, including the old servant Adam who was, according to legend, played by the Bard himself.
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I’m not entirely sold on the contemporary musical numbers composed by Aimone and musical director/accompanist Zach Roberts. They do distract, and it’s obviously not Shakespearean verse, but I do recognize the opportunity it gives several supporting characters to grab the spotlight – an egalitarian approach that I approve of – and would otherwise deny us the delight of Mackenzie Larsen’s Broadway-calibre belt.
And they certainly have eyebrow-raising ambition. Next year they will stage Shakespeare’s double-tetralogy of history plays (Richard II, Henry IV pts 1 & 2, Henry V, Henry VI pts 1-3, and Richard III) in repertory (i.e. all at the same time), the first American theatre company, as far as they know, to attempt this epic feat. Brave spirits indeed.
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As You Like It by William Shakespeare, directed by Jessica Aimone. Cast: Charlie Cook, Amber Gibson, Jared H Graham, Brendan Edward Kennedy, Mackenzie Larsen, Farrell Parker, Ben Peter, Megan Reichelt, Ian Blackwell Rogers, Rebecca Speas, Anderson Wells, Daniel Westbrook. Directed by Jessica Aimone. Lighting Designer: Jason Aufdem-Brinke. Intimacy Coordinator: Megan Behm. Fight Director: Casey Kaleba. Dramaturg: Emily MacLeod. Musical Director/Composer: Zach Roberts. Costume Designer: Adalia Tonneyck. Assistant Director: Anderson Wells. Stage Manager: Sam Rollin. Produced by Brave Spirits Theatre. Review by John Geoffrion
[for the record, Megan Reichelt was a classmate of mine at Catholic University]
