Playmakers Repertory Company’s As You Like It reviewed as pleasing despite a slow start

Everything’s better in the Forest of Arden.

And though the characters in PlayMakers Repertory Company’s current production of “As You Like It” seem loath to enter this mystical forest, the play improves when the action and actors leave the stiff world of the court and open the gates to the woodlands beyond.

In this play, a classic Shakespearean comedy of banished brothers, forlorn lovers and mistaken identity, the plot waits off in the wings as characters engage in complex battles of verbal wit.

It was surprising that early dialogues lacked energy and emotional subtlety.

Marianne Miller’s Rosalind and her sidekick, Alice Whitley’s Celia, were often stale. In the middle of an open stage and armed with only Shakespeare’s language, the women had trouble carrying the scene in an immense space.

The saving grace of the first act’s court scenes came in a realistic stage fight between Derrick Ledbetter’s Orlando and Brett Bolton’s Charles, as booming falls and painful-looking strangling drew much-needed attention in the Paul Green Theatre.

As the play moved from a strained drama to a frivolous comedic flight, characters and spectators alike awakened.

The set’s marble-sheen green floor and receding trees were continuously filled with boisterous performances.

As court fool Touchstone, Jimmy Kieffer exploited his character’s jocular potential.

Kieffer’s comedic gifts shined when his wit-based logic battled the backwoods reason of David Adamson’s simple shepherd Corin in a short-lived philosophical episode.

A well-orchestrated gag saw Rosalind, Celia and Touchstone fleeing the court as the “Mission Impossible” theme piped through the speakers. The actors indulged in ducks and dodges to parallel the iconic music, thematically-misplaced though it may have been.

Scott Ripley’s portrayal of Jaques, or “Senor Melancholy,” was fresh. Ripley played the typically low-spirited character as harsh, giving each one of his lines bite.

Ripley’s poised delivery of the “Seven Ages of Man” speech was perhaps the only moment when the productions’s use of a fog machine was appropriate.

With the lights dimmed and Ripley’s face lit, his shifting eyes seemed to pull contemplative answers from the air, and his stabbing stare at an old and worn Adam, also played by David Adamson, was haunting.

Despite its slow start, the play benefited from its youthful cast’s vibrant energy and loud delivery.

Miller ultimately demonstrated her versatility as an actress, becoming the cast’s leader and resident Cupid.

The play ended with much skipping and swinging as all 20 actors took the stage in a joyous dance that, like the play itself, was ultimately silly and a real pleasure to watch.

Contact the Arts Editor at

artsdesk@unc.edu.