Theater Reviews : Whether You Like It or Not! : UCI Production of the Shakespeare Work Has an Overdeveloped Sense of the Emphatic

No detail of “As You Like It!” seems too small for director Robert Cohen to mull over, tinker with, and assign some potentially significant meaning.

At UC Irvine’s Fine Arts Village Theatre, where his postmodern staging of Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy opened this weekend, even the title of the play gets an exclamation point to underscore a theme.

Unfortunately, the production as a whole suffers from an overdeveloped sense of the emphatic. And despite dynamic moments from a large cast kept in perpetual motion, many of Cohen’s interpretive details are just too obvious.

By contrast, Douglas-Scott Goheen’s plain design of the show--presented without scenery on a green runway between two tiers of seats--makes the best statement because of its basic intimacy and lack of fuss.

What scenic elements there are consist mainly of pale brick columns at both ends of the runway, some yellow beach balls herded with white shepherds’ crooks to represent sheep, and a leafy-looking cyclorama that embraces the audience.

The costumes are a purposeful mix of the understated and the highly theatrical. Some characters wear outfits that could have come from the pages of a comic book. Others wear suits and fedoras out of the ‘40s. Most have on a motley wardrobe suggesting rural woodsmen who put themselves together with secondhand clothes from a Salvation Army store.

Problems arise when this updated production calls our attention to Cohen’s unoriginal choices. It is no stroke of genius, for example, to signal the coming of fall in the Forest of Arden with a few bars of “Autumn Leaves,” not even if it’s a sendup, which of course it is. Ditto for winter’s arrival and “Let It Snow.”

Similarly, to satirize moon-struck Orlando with the tune “I Could Write a Book,” as he pins love notes for Rosalind on the trees per Shakespeare’s text, is corny, redundant and too cute by half.

In fact, trying to milk laughs from the audience repeatedly with stale musical italics is only one of the production’s wrongheaded hallmarks. Another is the insistence on unimaginative sight gags.

If you don’t get the obscure allusion to ‘50s-era wrestling legend Gorgeous George from the long blond wig sported here by Charles, wrestler to Duke Frederick, a helpful hint is stenciled on the back of his sweat shirt. Large gold letters tell you this is “Comely Charles.”

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The lack of inspiration carries over to other choices as well. Is there a director alive who hasn’t used badminton to show Rosalind and Celia frolicking on the palace lawn? The silver lining here is the scene’s fine execution by Demetra Tseckares as Rosalind and Jennifer Paige Mazzuca as Celia.

Orlando’s lawn mower is a more original idea to illustrate his lowly chores, or at least one I’d never seen before. One of the few lovable concepts is the use of the beach balls as sheep. The image of the shepherd Corin (David Anderson) leading them with his crook has lasting charm, especially when they bleat (courtesy of music director Dennis Castellano).

The production also offers an entertaining showcase for Michael Thomas Holmes as Touchstone, the witty fool, whose flamboyant clowning includes fleeting impersonations of John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Richard Nixon and Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Maybe it’s contagious. Two seasons ago, a different Touchstone did Elvis, Groucho and Jack Nicholson at Santa Barbara City College.)

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For a play without much of a plot, “As You Like It!” has plenty of convolutions.

The bad Duke Frederick, usurper of the good Duke Senior, boots Senior’s daughter Rosalind out of his palace after raising her as a playmate for his own daughter, Celia. The two young women flee with Touchstone to the Forest of Arden, where Duke Senior is hiding out with his band of men. Rosalind disguises herself as a young man, Ganymede. Celia masquerades as a peasant girl, Aliena.

Meanwhile, Orlando, who has fallen in love with Rosalind (and she with him), flees separately to the forest because his nasty elder brother Oliver, who is envious of him, now plans to have him killed.

All eventually meet in the forest and end up properly paired off in marriage, following a series of romantic complications.

Shakespeare has written a commanding role in Rosalind, and any actor who plays her must exude intelligence, subtlety and, most of all, charisma. Tseckares begins with promise but tends to flatten out, not quite clinching the feminine allure that makes Rosalind so captivating. She loosens up, though, as the strutting Ganymede and acquits herself with honor.

John W. Gloria, well cast as Orlando, gives a very natural, persuasive performance grounded in restraint. He conveys sincerity without sappiness and doesn’t reach for effects. His comfort in the role helps anchor the production in reality.

Mazzuca’s vivid Celia also gives the show a big assist in that regard, as does Todd Denning, whose forceful Jaques seems a lot less melancholy than usual. He also is a bit goofy as a tree-climbing lookout, but Denning has stage presence as well as some of Shakespeare’s most memorable lines (the great monologue on the seven ages of man).

As Amiens, tenor David Baida is notable for his affecting rendition of several Shakespearean songs, attractively set by composer Christine Frezza. And Tyler Layton shines with uncommon grace in the small role of Phoebe.

All in all, however, this “As You Like It!” ranks as an ambitious misfire. Cohen revs the engine, but the show doesn’t go anywhere.

* “As You Like It!,” UC Irvine’s Fine Arts Village Theatre, Bridge and Mesa roads, UC Irvine. Wednesday-Saturday at 8 p.m. matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. Ends Sunday. $6-$15. (714) 824-6616 and 824-5000. Running time: 2 hours 55 minutes. Demetra Tseckares: Rosalind

John W. Gloria: Orlando

Jennifer Paige Mazzuca: Celia

Michael Thomas Holmes: Touchstone

Todd Denning: Jaques

Charles Huston: Oliver

Dudley Knight: Charles/Duke Senior

Hydo D. Chang: Silvius

Tyler Layton: Phoebe

David Anderson: Corin

David Baida: Amiens

Daniel DeMarco Forest: Lord 1

Stephen Simon: LeBeau/Forest Lord 2

Francisco Gallegos: Adam

Jason Heil: Duke Frederick

Michelle Brooks: Audrey

Mark J. Austin: William

John W. Herrera: Denis

Douglas Pyle: First Courtier

Laura Mulrenan: Jane de Boys

Aaron Coleman: Oliver Martext

A Drama at UC Irvine presentation of a play by William Shakespeare. Directed by Robert Cohen. Scenic designer: Douglas-Scott Goheen. Costume designer: Joyce Ann Littrell. Lighting designer: Christopher Hall. Musical director: Dennis Castellano. Choreographer: Janice Gudde Plastino. Composer: Christine Frezza. Combat director: Christopher Villa. Production stage manager: Laurie Ann Kincman.