Rosalynde (or, As You Like It)

By William Shakespeare, directed by D. Jeremy Smith. Until August 12 in parks around southern Ontario (viewed in Thorn Lodge Park, Mississauga). Driftwoodtheatre.com or 844-601-8057.

There are lots of ambitions and ideas behind this staging of Shakespeare’s As You Like It, currently playing in parks around the GTA and beyond as part of Driftwood Theatre’s annual Bard’s Bus Tour. Too many ideas, it seems, in that few have been seen through to fulfilment, but the charm of the cast and the outdoor setting go a long way in making this an enjoyable, family-friendly evening.

Director D. Jeremy Smith sets the production in 1918 Ontario, as the First World War rages, Prohibition is in effect, and women are lobbying for the right to vote. This is suggested through costumes, particularly Rosalynde (Sochi Fried)’s cloche hat, and the principal set pieces of barrels and bottles of contraband liquor. At the opening of the show and in breaks between acts, the cast shout out news headlines establishing the time and place.

Further underlining feminist themes, Driftwood has renamed the play after its central female character, and the featured role of Jaques, usually played by a man, is played here by Caroline Gillis. But otherwise the players perform the text close to what was written, raising questions about why to rename in the first place other than to lean into the current vogue of women-led Shakespeare.

Shakespeare’s text competes somewhat with the early 20th-century setting: the two feuding brothers Senior and Frederick are here not dukes but co-owners of the Dukes’ Distillery, a clever touch playing into the Prohibition-era setting, but then talk of banishment and the convention of a fool (the character Touchstone, played by Geoffrey Armour) pull us back to Elizabethan times.

It was best, I found, to focus on the romcom plot and not on this over-conceptualization, and to enjoy the skill of the eight-member cast as they move between multiple roles (only Fried’s Rosalynde — the name Shakespeare gave her has been lightly tweaked, in homage to his source material — and Ximena Huizi as her cousin Celia play the same parts throughout). Yet another concept, this one generally more successful, is the use of puppets to represent secondary characters. Eric Woolfe — who designed the puppets along with production designer Sheree Tams — proves particularly adept at shape-shifting vocally and physically, puppeteering as the shepherd Corin and vicar Martext as well as playing both of the Dukes.

While some of the younger cast members are not yet fully owning Shakespeare’s language, everyone in their own way has an opportunity to shine. In Fried and Huizi’s playing, the intensity of Celia and Rosalynde’s bond is moving, and a late scene in which Gillis’s Jaques imparts wisdom to the two younger women has feminist power. Megan Miles sings beautifully as Amiens and displays physical prowess and strong comic timing in her puppet work as Charles, Phebe, and Audrey.

Derek Kwan makes the most of the smaller role of Oliver, cherishing the language in a speech narrating his transformation from baddie to good guy (he and Miles also do a pretty adorable job playing a flock of sheep). While his portrayal of the aged servant Adam strays into caricature, Armour is very fun and very clear as the ribald, antic Touchstone. Ngabo Nabea plays the lover Orlando’s earnestness to good comic effect and interacts well with the audience. Fried, a late addition to the cast, brings intelligence and intensity to her Rosalynde, while it’s clear that she still has more to discover in the character.

What brings it all together is the community setting. To be outdoors in a camp chair on a warm, clear evening as part of a multi-generational audience, taking in a classic story of loss, love, and hope: it adds up to a fine midsummer pleasure.