Summer love is in the open air (From Echo)

Summer love is in the open air

8:00am Monday 29th June 2009 in

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SOUTHEND Shakespeare Company’s annual summer production was almost launched with the publicity tag “The show with stile”.

The horrible pun plays on the rural setting of As You Like It. Company president James Carter, says: “There’s quite a lot of comic business played out around a country stile and, well, it seemed like a good line at the time.”

As usual, the company will perform at a number of outdoor venues, which makes As You Like It, mostly set in the magical Forest of Arden, an ideal choice.

Shakespeare was at his sunniest and funniest when he penned the romantic fable about the beautiful, lovesick Rosalind, who runs away from court life to seek her banished father somewhere in the greenwoods, falling passionately in love along the way.

The play combines a rich sense of romance with many opportunities for knockabout comedy, something that director Peter Finlay exploits to the hilt. As well as jokes about stiles, this production also promises an extended gag involving “comical cowpats”.

Another highlight involves the entire cast taking part in a maypole dance.

“That part isn’t meant to be funny, but in rehearsals the maypole has been tying us all up in knots,” James says.

The cast of As You Like It includes a number of Southend Shakespeare stalwarts, led by Vanessa Osborn as Rosalind, John Newell as the clown Touchstone, Madeleine Ayres as Rosalind’s bosom companion Celia, and Ian Downie as the decrepit servant Adam.

Haydn Cox, 14, who played Puck in last year’s company production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, returns to play the minstrel Amiens. “Haydn provides us with some lovely musical interludes, he’s a real delight to listen to,” says James.

As the melancholy courtier Jacques, James himself gets to deliver one of the most famous Shakespeare passages, the Ages of Man speech.

It begins with the line: “All the world’s a stage”. Or, in this case, of course, a stile and a cowpat.

As You Like It, Southend Shakespeare Company Priory Park, Southend Wednesday July 1, to Friday July 3. The Coal House Fort, Tilbury, Sunday, July 5 Rayleigh Mount, Rayleigh, Saturday and Sunday, July 18 and 19 Tickets £7 (£6) No need to book in advance. Bring your own deckchair 01702 353577