As I See It...

It is always a strange experience almost surreal experience to read a play or novel then see it played out for ' real , on the big screen or in a theatre. Upon reading, ' As You Like It ', I had set visuals in my head. I see the characters faces and imagine the settings and background and colors. I become the director and create my own canvas. Upon watching the play, my first thought is disbelief as the characters are so different in physical appearance than in my imagination.further, in my head the settings are real and elaborate like a technicolor motion picture in high definition. However, in the play on stage there is no such luxury and the setting is plain and there is an obvious audience that reminds you that this is a staged rehearsed production with actors.

On the positive side, it is wonderful to hear the dialogues with their melodious ring and the play simply comes alive despite the barren backdrop. All the characters however in their dialogue delivery and actions appear loud and outlandish and exaggerated in their movements, which is how I expect Shakespeare wanted to protest his characters. This is similar to the portrayal of cartoon like characters by Dickens as the reader is more compelled to take notice if things are out of the ordinary, larger than life caricatures. There is on stage shown tremendous variance in the stresses of court life to the serenity and simplicity of life in the forest of Arden with lightening speed prop and scene changes. The costumes too add to the drama and bring to life the era of that time. 

With Rosalind and Celia I expected more fragile, demure and younger characters who I imagined to be soft spoken. Instead they appear feisty and vivacious, with childish giggles intertwined within their determination. However Rosalind came across as the more unsure nervous character while Celia was the calmer voice of reason. As expected Orlando was young and passionate with reckless abandon that comes with youth. He reminded me of Romeo from ' Romeo and Juliet'. Touchstone was extremely manic in his madness and an exaggerated caricature on stage. Oliver, as expected came across as arrogant and full of pride but the Senior Duke was not as regal as I expected on stage, while Adam was mature and paternal. The other characters showed no glaring differences in the reading or watching.

The main stark difference was that on stage you could see the play was written as a parody and comedy while this was not apparent in the reading as the play appeared to be a serious drama full of conflict and strife.  This may have been in the difficulty of reading Shakespearean text as opposed to modern day language and added to the fact I had not imagined expressions, reactions coupled with over the top actions while taking in the text.