Of all the Shakespeare plays I’ve read – this was very much one of the lightest. Similar to Much Ado About Nothing, it never feels like there’s a great deal of tension or drama, and it doesn’t tie into any mythology or history. Luckily, it’s saving grace is that it has some fun with gender, similar to Twelfth Night, and that’s one of my favourite things in Shakesepare.
Actually, when I say it’s similar to Twelfth Night, that’s true in a number of ways – in it, two women, Rosalind and Celia go into hiding after Rosalind’s uncle (Ceila’s father) usurps his way into power and exiles them. They head into the Forest of Arden and then disguise themselves to protect their identity, and Rosalind in particular pretends to be a man, much as Viola does after she gets shipwrecked in Illyria. However, I felt like there were more complicated strands and misidentifications going on which made Twelfth Night a little more engaging, whereas As You Like It was much more just people meeting and having romances in the forest.
I do always enjoy stories of women falling in love with other women because they’re disguised as men at the time (and they don’t realise it). It’s probably the most overtly queer Shakespeare ever gets, and I appreciate it for that reason – especially when you consider the whole extra angle of these women being played by men. So you’d have had a man playing a woman pretending to be a man, which is quite a high degree of gender bending.
Ultimately, I wish the narrative had been a little meatier – the opening lays the groundwork for some fairly interesting political intrigue which never really comes back. The stakes never really feel particularly high, and to be honest, I didn’t really find it as funny or amusing as quite a lot of the others, so thank goodness it had the gender stuff in it, because I’d have been really bored otherwise. It is the origin of the “All the world’s a stage” speech, though, which is cool to see in context for the first time.
It’s not long, so definitely give it a go if you’re into queer history, but keep in mind that it may not be quite as riveting as other works by Shakespeare.
Score: 6.2/10
