As You Like It (Play on Shakespeare)

This reader is much prejudiced toward seeing a work as the writer intended; even if the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays remains questioned. The editor of AS YOU LIKE IT is the artistic director of the South Coast Repertory Theater in Costa Mesa. With those credentials, I am sure that he knows his way around Shakespeare’s plays. But even he, in his preamble questions What was I thinking?. To tackle a masterpiece (and my favorite Shakespearean play) is a gargantuan task. But much of the abridgment and text loses so much that I found myself questioning his choices. For example, one of the funniest dialogues in the play is between Touchstone, the fool, and his love object, Audrey. To change Touchstone’s proposal of living in bawdry to tawdry just doesn’t make sense to this reader. The play loses much of its humor through this translation.

I would agree that there is a problem with the language in Shakespeare, but I feel that it is more with the actors than the dialogue. Shakespeare’s admonition to speak the words trippingly on the tongue have been taken literally and too many actors race through the dialogue rather than punching it up. For someone who prefers Shakespeare lite, however, this book may be a good choice.