Shakespeare’s comedy As You Like It takes the stage at UNO. Yes, one of those titles that tells you so little you must rack your brain to remember who does what with whom and where.
Clarity, perforce: In the Forest of Arden, to which exiled Rosalind and her life-time dearest friend and cousin Celia hit the trial. Disguised as guys. Big surprise. Once amid the leafy glades, Rosalind is courted by another exile, Orlando, who decorates the trees with poems dedicated to her. The girls travel with court jester Touchstone who hankers after Audrey. Meanwhile Rosalind’s equally displaced dad, Duke Senior, presides over followers including pensive, mournful Jacques who loves animals and opposes eating venison. Multiple kinds of love, you see. Darkness for a while: hatred from Senior and Orlando’s brothers. Oh, what a tangled web. It unravels happily. Rest assured.
UNO Theatre’s D. Scott Glasser takes on the project, setting it in pre-revolution Russia. He calls this “a fantasy about personal power and social responsibility” and into these woods one goes to find freedom, he avers, “from the conventions and restraints of the real world. ” Expect music from Paul Boesing, with lyrics by The Bard.
“All the world’s a stage” quoth Jacques.
As You Like It runs April 15-25. UNO Theatre, Weber Fine Arts Building, 6001 Dodge Street. 7:30 p.m. Tickets $15. UNO students: free.http://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-communication-fine-arts-and-media/theatre-productions/index.php