The College's Shakespeare company, The Dartmouth Rude Mechanicals, presented "As You Like It" on Saturday in Dartmouth Hall. In its performance, the 12-person cast enlivened the written word and often led the audience to burst out in laughter.
The Dartmouth Rude Mechanicals was formed during the Fall 2008 theater foreign study program in London when four juniors were inspired to bring a Shakespearean acting company to Dartmouth. The group's name comes from "A Midsummer Night's Dream," in which a band of lower-class laborers described as "rude mechanicals" put on a play. As a tribute to Elizabethan theater, the Rude Mechanicals put on no-tech productions without lights or a set.
On Saturday, the acting troupe used simple tools such as boxes and chalkboards to distinguish between different scenes. The forest of Arden was drawn simply on the chalkboard, and the crew turned to the board several other times during the play to elicit favorable responses from the audience.
The actors in "As You Like It" appeared deeply immersed in their characters.
Willa Johann '10 and Adrian Garcia '10 masterfully commanded the stage from the outset, portraying Rosalind and Orlando, respectively.
Johann was a convincing actress, smoothly switching between the feminine Rosalind and the boyish Ganymede, the alias Rosalind assumes once she is banished from the Duke's household.
While Johann and Garcia perfectly portrayed the anguish of love throughout the play, the rest of the cast filled out the supporting roles with wit and energy.
The buoyant Megan Rosen '10 personified Celia, the spunky daughter of Duke Frederick and Rosalind's cousin.
Perhaps the most versatile actress was Chiara Klein '10. Without any inhibitions, she vividly portrayed Adam, Orlando's faithful servant, Audrey, a country maiden and LeBeau, a courtier. So entertaining was her performance that it was often difficult to restrain from giggling.
Bill Calder '12, as Jacques, delivered perhaps the most well known lines from the play, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages."
Grace Johnson '11 transformed herself over the course of the play from Amiens, the lord and musician, to Corin, a poor tenant, giving the audience a taste of her lyrical voice.
One side plot was led by Jay Ben Markson '10, playing the boisterous and hilarious Touchstone, the court jester who ventures out of the Duke's household with Rosalind and Celia, only to become enamored with the country maiden, Audrey. With his ukulele and warm welcoming smile, the audience had no choice but to laugh wholeheartedly as he tried, and repeatedly failed, to marry Audrey.
