About the work
Shakespeare's comedy „As You Like It" was written around 1599-1600 and is one of the most-loved of his pastoral comedies. In the Forest of Arden — the utopian world that suspends all social hierarchies — lovers, exiles and fools come together.
Plot
At the court of Duke Frederick, who has usurped his rightful brother. Frederick has tolerated Rosalind, daughter of the banished Duke Senior, at his court because his daughter Celia loves her. Rosalind falls for Orlando, a young gentleman whose elder brother Oliver has cheated him of his inheritance. Frederick eventually banishes Rosalind too; Celia and the court fool Touchstone flee with her. In the Forest of Arden — where banished Duke Senior lives in pastoral idyll — Rosalind disguises herself as a man, „Ganymede". Orlando, also fled to the forest, hangs love poems on the trees. „Ganymede" offers to „cure" Orlando of love by playing Rosalind for him. A virtuoso masquerade ensues. Phebe, a shepherdess, falls in love with „Ganymede". Eventually Rosalind reveals herself; Orlando and Rosalind, Oliver and Celia, Phebe and the shepherd Silvius, Touchstone and Audrey marry together. Frederick is converted and returns the dukedom.
Cultural significance
„As You Like It" contains Shakespeare's most famous monologue: Jaques's „All the world's a stage". Rosalind — Shakespeare's longest female role, a woman pretending to be a man playing a woman — is one of the most coveted parts in the English repertoire. Continuously on the stage from the eighteenth century to the present; productions range from Helena Modjeska to Cheek by Jowl, from Peter Stein to the 2018 Donmar Warehouse staging.