Few productions of William Shakespeare's comical romantic romp in the Forest of Arden have been either as pared down or as inventive as that directed by Maeliosa Stafford which opened in Galway last night. The overall texture is of grunge in duffel coats (well, leather coats and shiny boots or high-heel shoes for the gentry maybe) and open shirts or blouses for the peasantry.
The opening in Duke Frederick's court is darkly lit with handheld torches serving as follow-spots to light the faces. Then the dark ceiling folds away, there is a thin scatter of leaves and half-a-dozen tall straight scrawny "trees" and, with full stage lighting, we are in the forest, yet clearly in a spare bare warehouse. And the eight energetic actors are the entire cast of the author's characters.
Given the spareness of the production, the inventiveness is necessary and, for the most part, effective, but the need to get everyone married at the end requires a series of small puppets which diminish the romantic wrap of the play in dramatic terms. Judith Ryan's Rosalind is more pert than lovelorn and Jason Gilroy's Orlando more a street fighter than the deposed heir to the Dukedom. Helen Norton's Celia (doubling rapturously as shepherdess Audrey) is solid and sensible.
David Wilmot as Touchstone transfers nicely from the sinister elegance of the Duke's court to the rustic freedom of the forest and, as the lovelorn shepherdess Phoebe is convulsively funny and even touching.
Joe Hanley as Jacques is a mite more surly than melancholic, but none the less effective for that, and Jaime Robertson carries off both Duke Frederick and his brother with quiet style and minimal change in either costume or demeanour. But the night belongs to Mark O'Halloran and Michael Hayes as two of the funniest rustically bemused shepherds ever seen. The evening offers whole new insights into one of Shakespeare's best-known plays and, even if romanticism loses out to comicality, it is an original and entertaining piece of theatricality. Runs for five weeks. Booking at (091) 568617.
