As You Like It

On Sunday, my dad and I went to see an all male cast, Shakespeare play called 'As You Like It'. It was performed by the all male troupe called The Lord Chamberlain's Men, at the National Trust park. It was a small outside play, however the atmosphere was still professional and well presented.

Rosalind with her uncle and cousin

The play is based on the heroine Rosalind who flees from being prosecuted by her uncle with her cousin Celia and the court jester, Touchstone. The male protagonist, Orlando, falls in love with Rosalind, but is forced to flee because of his brother trying to prosecute him. They all (but separately) head to the Forest of Arden where Rosalind disguises herself as a man called Ganymede with Celia disguised as her sister, Aliena. Through the story, Rosalind (as Ganymede) meets up with Orlando, and pretends to help cure him from being in love. The play includes love triangles and humour, which leads to a happy ending of Rosalind and Orlando, and two other couples getting married all at once.

This play links to the onnagata theatre of having an all male cast, but it also links to the traditional Shakespeare cast; back when Shakespeare was creating plays (1600s), women were not allowed to act so they used an all male cast to play both male and female roles.

Rosalind meets Orlando

My main focus of watching this play, was to see the method of how costume is worn to play roles and show the characters personality .

Rosalind in red dressed as a man

I believe that the character Rosalind was an interesting character for showing personality and playing roles as it was a male actor playing as a woman who plays as a man. When the male actor plays as Rosalind (as herself), he creates a very feminine character who holds her hands to her chest and walks holding her dress like a woman from the time. Even when the actor needs to play as a woman playing as a man, he still portrayed the character being very feminine, as she squeals and faints. Costume plays an important role for this character as it represents the disguise of Rosalind becoming a man (making it more believable for the audience and other actors), and also the male actor disguising himself as Rosalind.This links to David Bowie and his inspiration to onnagata theatre, as Ziggy Stardust plays as both masculine and feminine. Colour is also used to show the audience that the character is Rosalind, as she is always dressed up in red. The red also suggests love, which reflects how her goal is to marry the man she loves. Also it shows love, as a female character falls in love with Ganymede.

Wealth is shown strongly though costume in this play; there is upper class characters with rich colour clothing made out of velvety material (similar to Queen Elizabeth I's dress in the Hampden Portrait), and then in contrast there is farmers, music travellers and peasants.

The uncle is dressed as an upper class man, which is shown through his collar and velvety red cloak. The actor also presents the characters personality through the way he stands: back straight, elbows out, fitting with the wealthy clothing and how it should be worn. It shows that the character has a high status of power, therefore the actor uses the wealthy-looking clothing to portray the role he is playing: being a powerful man.

Musician

A musician in the play dresses differently to the uncle, as he travels around playing music to make money. So for this character, the actor dresses more relaxed and with earthy colours and has clothing which doesn't have a decoration purpose.
 The costume is raggedy and reflects how little money the musician earns. However the jacket is suitable for a traveller as it covers the man's torso making it purposeful to wear for the cold. The blouse under the jacket shows that he doesn't need or want to present himself like the upper-class people and tuck in his blouse. This suggests that the character is more down to earth and relaxed. This is even shown though how he acts towards others; he had his arms on his friends shoulders and insulted another character. The characters personality is also very cheery suiting the role of a travelling musician.

The cousin of Rosalind (Celia) dresses up as a poor, working girl as a disguise. She changes from a wealthy garment, which is made fittingly, to a shapeless blouse and skirt. The male actor for this character has to keep very feminine, as he plays as a woman throughout. The character dresses in shades of pinks, suggesting her girlishness and innocence, as she helps her cousin and gives her love advice.

Again the male actor has to portray a woman by using his posture: very reserved and holds his hands together.

There was a minor character in the play who is also a traveller, however he has a sly, snobby personality, which is reflected though his clothing: neatly dressed like an upper class person (but not as fancy) and wears all dark clothing suggesting that he is bit of an antagonist.The actor uses the neat clothing to show how the character likes to show that he is better then everyone else; he walks elegantly with his head up.

 The jester in the play had a very mischievous, bubbly personality who isn't afraid to speak his mind. His costume is a typical jester outfit which fits the role. The actor portrays the character as being-a-laugh by jumping and skipping around the stage singing, suiting the jester appearance and stereotype.


The costume used bright(ish) colours that reflected the personality of the character. The design of the costume included tassels on the arms and legs and also a red, bull hat. This is to show that he is the fool and so the audience would recognise who he is and expect him to dance when they first see him.


From watching this play I was able to see the methods used by the actors through costumes to portray to the audience about the personality and roles of the characters.

I will hopefully go and see some more clothing from the Tudor era later in the summer holidays, and hopefully see the garments more up close as I was unable to do so when I watched this play (this was mainly of me focusing on how costume is used in performance).