Miss Marlowe's Rosalind, somewhat along the same lines as Miss
Anderson's, and Miss Crosman's, a hoydenish, tomboy sort of creature,
first cousin to Mistress Nell and the young lady of _The Amazons_,
should be familiar to theatregoers of the last two decades.
Last Monday evening Margaret Anglin exposed her version of the comedy.
As might have been expected, it has met with some unfavourable
criticism. Preconceived notions of Rosalind are as prevalent as
preconceived notions of Hamlet. And yet if _As You Like It_ had been
produced Monday night as a "new fantastic comedy," just as _Prunella_
was, for instance, I am inclined to think that everybody who dissented
would have been at Miss Anglin's charming heels.
The scenery has been given undue prominence both by the management and
by the writers for the newspapers. Its most interesting feature is the
arrangement by which it is speedily changed about. There were no long
waits caused by the settings of scenes during the acts. To say,
however, that it has anything to do with the art of Gordon Craig is to
speak nonsense. The scenes are painted in much the same manner as that
to which we are accustomed and inured. There is a certain haze over
the trees, caused partially by the tints and partially by the
lighting, which produces a rather charming effect, but the outlines of
the trees are quite definite; no impressionism here.
The acting is quite a different matter. _As You Like It_ is one of the
most modern in spirit of the Shakespeare plays. This air of modernity
is still further emphasized by the fact that the play, for the most
part, is written in prose. I feel certain that Bernard Shaw derived
part of his inspiration for _Man and Superman_ from _As You Like It_.
Only in Shakespeare's play Ann Whitefield (Rosalind) pursues Octavius
(Orlando) instead of Jack Tanner. I am inclined to believe that Shaw's
psychology in this instance is the more sound. It seems incredible
that a girl so witty, so beautiful, and so intelligent as Rosalind
should waste so much time on that sentimental, uncomprehending
creature known as Orlando. Every line of Orlando should have sounded
the knell of his fate in her ears. However, it must be remembered that
Orlando was young and good-looking, and that, at least in the play,
men of the right stamp seemed to be scarce. Of course, it is out of
Touchstone that Shaw has evolved his Jack Tanner.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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