CEDAR CITY – William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, directed by Beth Lopes, fills the comedy position in Utah Shakespeare Festival’s 2025 lineup. I am pleased that all three Shakespeare shows are presented in the ideal setting of the Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre under the stars again. Filled with the most popular Shakespearean conventions (cross-dressing, mixed up lovers, clowns, weddings, and happy endings) and themes such as loyalty, friendship, repentance and forgiveness, it is no wonder that this is one of the Bard’s most liked, and oft-produced works. As You Like It contains several songs, and dances in a production that is a Shakespearean prototype to modern musical theatre. There is truly much to like in USF’s solid production.
The plot, with its several throughlines, is complicated and I recommend reading through the plot summary in the program before the show. In brief, the story starts in the city from whence Duke Frederick (Geoffrey Kent) has banished his brother Duke Senior (Chauncy Thomas). Duke Senior leaves behind his daughter, Rosalind (Kayland Jordan) with her cousin Celia (Kat Lee). Several others join Duke Senior in the Forest of Arden including, eventually, Rosalind and Celia who travel in disguise. Mix-ups and mayhem ensues. Eventually severed relationships are reconciled and love is found in the forest.
As part of Lopes’ comprehensive and imaginative vision for the production, Jaques, normally played by a man, is played by a woman, Cassandra Bissell, who enters first and, delivers her famous line, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players” as a prologue, and invites the cast of players in ones and twos onto the stage as a visual preamble, establishing through slow movement, relationships, and some history and context for the production we are about to experience. This highlights Jaques’s role as an observer, an interpreter, and as a foil in her cynical melancholy outlook, which both counterbalances the optimistic tones of the play, and in this production in particular, serves almost as the playmaker herself, presenting to the audience this play.
The show is strong technically. The set, by Apollo Mark Weaver is initially underwhelming compared to the stunning visuals in Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra. With two large pale blue panels flanking the center stage, billowing in the evening breeze. But Weaver’s set subsequently transforms into the Duke’s manor, then into a winter forest with barren trees that extend into the inner below alcove. Spring and summer then arrive in the forest in a lovely manner. The snappy drop of green treetops over the barren trunks was clever and funny. Shannon McKinney’s lighting design does the same thing, gently taking us from the cold, wintry tones of the city, to a forest in late winter that warms up into spring and summer. The costuming by Bill Black in the initial city scenes are deliciously entrenched in renaissance court-wear. While the costumes in the Forest of Arden relaxes substantially with Duke Senior’s nature-court looking much like Robin Hood’s merry band.
As You Like it Plays through September 5. | Photo: Copyright Utah Shakespeare Festival 2025.
Although some of the music is blaringly too loud, the sound design by Lindsay Jones generally supports the production well, including some birdsong and other transitional music. Music direction by Andrew Flasch is fantastic. This production sets the song lyrics in the text, which is challenging to do well, to lovely guitar and vocals both performed exquisitely by Blake Henri.
Overall the cast of USF’s production is strong, with notable stand outs in Jordan as Rosalind, whose awkward smitten flirtation with Orlando, played skillfully by Gabriel Elmore is delightful. Walter Kmiec’s Touchstone is everything one wants in this faithful and witty clown. Kmiec’s mastery of the language and comic timing are excellent, playing off of his cast-mates and the audience at times. Kmiec pairs well with Kathryn Tkel’s saucy rendition of Audrey the goatherd.
Geoffrey Kent’s fight direction in the wrestling scene between Orlando (Elmore) and Charles, played adeptly by Lavour Addison is fantastic. Kent achieves a WWE-esque match that is as spectacular as it is groan-worthy. Lopes achieves some lovely visual moments throughout the production as well. She sets a scene within the court on stage, and a scene without the court down in front of the stage, and interlaces them with a creative technique, freezing each scene while the other moves forward, leap-frog like until both reach their end. It is a unique way to move the action along quickly in two different threads and works well visually. Another nice directing moment was the fishing scene later on when the old shepherd Corin (Patrick Vest) spars with Touchstone (Kmiec) while sitting on opposing sides of the stage “fishing” into the audience. Throughout the production, Lopes uses the entire space well, from the upstairs balcony to the aisles amidst the audience, and everything in between.
Similar to the opening bookend with Jaques, Lopes takes an opportunity after intermission to crcate a sort of entr’act, visually summarizing where we are at that point in the production with the characters interacting silently on stage with musical underscore, while Jaques describes the current status. This convention works well visually and is consistent with the other elements of Jaques overseeing the production.
The production book-ends as Jaques delivers the play’s epilogue. The original text has this speech delivered by Rosalind and explains that it is not customary for a woman to deliver the epilogue. Lopes chooses to re-assign the epilogue to Jaques in this production, allowing the commentary about a woman delivering the epilogue to remain true while also reinforcing the role of Jaques as the playmaker. Utah Shakespeare Festival’s production, with a few unusual choices, works well and is all around a highly enjoyable show.
These reviews are made possible by a grant from the Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts, and Parks program.
