Globe Education Online
Resources for people passionate about learning and engaging with Shakespeare's plays
As You Like It (1998)
This wide and woeful theatre
Presents more woeful paegants than the scene
Wherein we play in.
2.7.137-139
Rosalind, the daughter of a banished duke, falls in love with Orlando at a wrestling mach. Her usurping uncle, jealous of her popularity, banished her fomr the court. Disguised as a boy, she leaves with her cousin Celia and the jester Touchstone, to seek out her father in the Forest of Arden where he lives with the melancholy Jacques and other co-mates and brothers in exile.
Set in two contrasting communities of city and forest, As You Like It speaks eloquently of the transforming nature of theatre: the soulful characters jounrey from inner conflict, through engagement or retreat, to harmony and joy. Its on-stage wrestling match, abundance of song and sparkling conversation, make As You Like It one of Shakespeare's most enchanting and reflective comedies.
