As You Like It
The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon

IN As You Like It Shakespeare’s melancholy philosopher, Jaques, assures us that “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” often encouraging directors to treat the play metatheatrically, that is: alerting the audience to the very artificiality of the work. 

Given that all the leading cast members of Omar Elerian’s quirky production of what is perhaps the Bard’s most exuberantly youthful comedy are over 70, there is a subtle irony in its opening words — “I remember.”  

Indeed, throughout the first half, this rehearsal room gathering of veteran actors, with the two or three younger members prompting the faltering memories of their older colleagues, play up to the arthritic comedy of ageing.