[title]
There’s one hell of a false start to director Derek Bond’s slow-burning take on Shakespeare’s woodland comedy. The first scenes are a bit of an ordeal, played against a vast and empty stage in a hodgepodge of ’40s costumes, with all the humour and urgency of a department store in liquidation. Expectations all but flatline until the scene is swept aside in a surge of confetti and song as the court of Duke Frederick is transformed into the forest of Arden, and the play snaps into life.
There’s no grand concept behind Bond’s stripped-back staging. The ‘playful and transgressive gender politics’ alluded to in the programme notes are absent. Instead we have strong performances, a slightly arch vibe and a gorgeous folky score from Jude Obermüller. And confetti. Did we mention the confetti? Designer Emma Bailey has a confetti problem and she’s not afraid to show it. It descends like a swarm of festive locusts, bursting from the ceiling at the slightest provocation.
Kaisa Hammarlund is particularly delightful as boisterous noblewoman Celia, supporting a prim Sally Scott as Rosalind, the can-do heroine who goes into exile in Arden when her father is banished from court. Simon Lipkin tears into the role of court jester Touchstone with carefree abandon, ripping up the script and smashing down the fourth wall as he wrings belly laughs from the dry paradoxes of Shakespeare’s second-worst clown.
By the time wedding bells start ringing in Arden you’ll be firmly onside, but the play needs a stronger start and a touch more conceptual coherence to pull its attractive parts into a satisfying whole.