As You Like It overturns the traditional rules of romance. Gender roles, nature and politics get thoroughly muddled in a play that reflects on how bewildering yet utterly pleasurable life can be.

EXILE IN THE FOREST OF ARDEN

 Duke Senior has been forced into exile from the court by Duke Frederick who has seized power. He takes refuge in the Forest of Arden with a band of faithful lords. Rosalind, his daughter, is kept uneasily at court as a companion to her cousin Celia, Duke Frederick's daughter.

A WRESTLING MATCH

 Orlando de Boys, the youngest son of the late Sir Rowland de Boys, has been kept in poverty by his brother Oliver since his father's death. Orlando decides to take part in a wrestling match to win back his fortune at Frederick's court. There, he spots Rosalind and they fall in love.

BANISHMENT

 Duke Frederick banishes Rosalind, believing her to be too popular and a threat to his power. Celia refuses to be parted from her cousin and together, they run away from court to find Duke Senior in the Forest. For safety, they disguise themselves - Rosalind as the boy Ganymede and Celia as his sister Aliena - and persuade the fool Touchstone to go with them.

On hearing of a plot by his brother to kill him, Orlando also flees to the Forest and joins the exiled Duke. Rosalind catches Orlando hanging love poetry to her on trees and, disguised as Ganymede, she challenges the strength of his love by getting him to woo Ganymede as if he were Rosalind.

LOVE BLOSSOMS IN THE FOREST

 Elsewhere in the forest, the shepherd Silvius suffers unrequited love for Phoebe, who has fallen for Ganymede, while Touchstone pursues the goat-herd Audrey.

After Orlando saves his brother’s life, Oliver is filled with guilt and promptly falls in love with Aliena. Frustrated by his love for Rosalind, Orlando stops wooing Ganymede, so she promises to conjure up the real Rosalind and that all the lovers will be wed. On the day of the wedding, Rosalind appears in her female clothes. Duke Senior gives her away to Orlando, while Phoebe accepts Silvius. Happy news arrives that Duke Frederick, has left court to be a hermit.

“The court and forest are not represented by a set. There is a clear change through music and sound to represent the two worlds. We have actors remembering that there used to be a tree there or a log there in the original production - so they use their imagination, create the tree.”

- Nastazja Domaradzka, Assistant Director, As You Like It, RSC 2023

This physical activity introduces the main plot points and helps students explore the two locations of the play. [You will need: a large, clear space. Copies of Resource A: Court v. Forest from the Resource section at the end of this page. Large paper or whiteboard & pens.]

• Discuss with your students the difference between Shakespeare’s two locations: a royal court and a country forest. Why did he choose these two locations to place his story? Write these points down in 2 lists on a whiteboard or large paper. Eg:
  • Court = formal, stuffy, traditional, old fashioned, obedient, safe
  • Forest = informal, free, wild, full of new life, anarchic, dangerous
• Organise your students into 8 groups and hand each group one scene from Resource A. (With smaller numbers, groups can have more than one scene)
• Explain that they will have 15 minutes to plan rehearse and perform their scene, using every member of the group. Ask them to pay particular attention to the following:
  • Whether the scene is set at court or in the forest or both
  • What this location might look like
  • How the location affects their characters physically. Do they stand formally and bow or sprawl about? Is it scarier at court or in the forest?
• Encourage them to use their own writing and ideas to adapt the scene to suit their location more accurately. Eg:
  • Make the narration more stuffy & formal or more casual & funny.
  • Could their scene be a news report about a wild forest or a royal documentary?
• Give the groups some extra time to rehearse their scene so everyone is familiar with it.
• Invite your groups to present their scenes in order.
• Discuss the results: What do they think Shakespeare is saying about these two worlds? Where might people feel safer or free-er and why?

“Rosalind and Celia’s friendship is a very girly, very ‘friendship bracelets, friends forever’ kind of vibe. To see them interact, you forget the ages.” 

- Nastazja Domaradzka, Assistant Director, As You Like It, RSC 2023

This writing activity allows students to explore the concept of Rosalind’s banishment and her and Celia’s predicament, and how it sets up the drama of the play. [You will need: Copies of Resource B: Banished, from the Resource section at the end of this page. Pens & paper.]

•  Discuss the word banishment and what it means. What are the risks for an unmarried noblewoman to be thrown out of the house to live in the wild?
•  Organise your students into groups of 3, hand out copies of Resource B and ask each group to read the scene between them.
• Come together as a whole group to discuss the relationship between Rosalind and Celia and the Duke. How does Shakespeare want us to feel about these characters? How does this scene set up the drama of the play? Who do we sympathise with and why?
• Now hand out paper and pens and ask everyone to choose one character from this scene and write a private diary entry from the perspective of that character about this moment of banishment. Encourage them to consider the following:
  • What emotions they felt in this scene
  • What they wished they hadn’t said or done
  • What they wished they had said or done
  • How they felt afterwards
  • What they did immediately afterwards
•  Encourage the students to imagine their own response, they do not have to stick to Shakespeare’s decisions.
• When the diary entries are written, ask your students to swap theirs with someone else and tell them which character the diary entry belongs to. Invite volunteers to read out what they’ve been given.
• Ask your students, as they listen, to imagine they are an older version of the character, listening to their diary entry written by their younger selves.
• Discuss the results: How might the older Duke feel, reflecting on his past actions? How does Rosalind and Celia feel remembering this event?

Discussion Extension:

Following the above activities, discuss the following with your students:

• Shakespeare uses the same plot point of a woman dressing as a man, several times in his plays. Eg: Twelfth Night, Cymbeline, Merchant of Venice, Two Gentlemen of Verona. Why might this disguise be useful to a woman? In what ways were women vulnerable 400 years ago? Has this changed for women now?
• Why did Shakespeare like this plot point so much? What might such a disguise add to a play? Humour? Drama? Confusion? Danger of being found out?
• Does age make a difference to Rosalind’s banishment? If she is older, are the dangers lessened or worse? What effect might seeing an older Rosalind banished have on an audience?
• Are there any modern examples they can think of, in a play, film or real life, where someone has dressed as the opposite gender for a similar reason?

“A lot of scholars argue that Jaques is Shakespeare, that he is inserting himself into the play and watching from a distance, not really buying it. The ‘meta’ interpretation of our production is that the actor playing Jaques isn’t keen on the reunion thing and Oliver (Cotton, who plays the character) makes that clear, cynically saying: ‘why are we doing this? We don’t have the costumes, we don’t look the way we did!"

- Nastazja Domaradzka, Assistant Director, As You Like It, RSC 2023

This performance activity examines the character of Jaques. [You will need: a large, clear space, copies of Resource C: The Melancholy of Jaques from the Resource section of this page, pens.] Note: there is a primary version of this scene.

Part A: Crumple Button

• Ask your students to spread out evenly and find a space in the room so they are clear of the walls, furniture and each other.
• Ask them to imagine they have a big button in the middle of their chest, between their shoulders. Explain that this is their ‘Crumple Button’ and when they press it, they are to feel their body collapse around this spot, their shoulders slump and their heads droop. Encourage them to feel gravity pulling on them and let their bodies respond.
• Invite them to go on a walk as this character and throw out some words. What does this person feel? Where is their eye line? Are they older or younger? What does this person do for a living?
•  Invite them to greet each other as they walk to hear what kind of voice they have
• Now ask them to stop and press the button again, this time to correct their posture so it is neutral and they are back where they started. Ask them to press their button one more time and to do the opposite, as if the button is giving them confidence, pouring more energy than usual into them until they are full.
• Invite them to walk around the room as this new person. Ask them the same questions and invite them to greet each other as they pass.
• Compare the two characters they became. How important is posture to mood?

Part B: Battle of the Moods

• Organise your students into pairs and hand out Resource C. Ask them to read this scene between them and consider the different body language of the two characters. How might Jaques’ words affect how Rosalind feels? How might her responses affect his feelings? Might she make him better or worse?
•  Ask each pair to come up with a series of gestures to accompany each line of the text. Challenge them to make these gestures match the emotions of the characters and how they are feeling or TRYING to make the other character feel. Ask them to invent as many as possible for line 4.
• Now ask your pairs to line up across the room, so that all the Jaques are facing all the Rosalinds in a long corridor.
• Explain that this is going to be a battle of moods. Jaques must make Rosalind feel melancholy and Rosalind must try her best to stay positive and cheer Jaques up.
• Explain that they are going to read the scene out loud all together and react as a group to the lines in the text, using and building on the gestures they have created.

“People in this country are quite reluctant to cut Shakespeare for reasons unknown. If it was up to me, more would be cut. The edit for our production relies on the play not being linear. There is a change of order in certain scenes but the core of the rhythm is still there.

- Nastazja Domaradzka, Assistant Director, As You Like It, RSC 2023

This writing activity allows students to explore some of the techniques that Shakespeare uses in his language to entertain his audience and experience trying them out for themselves. [You will need Resource D: ‘Epilogue’ from the Resources section of this page, paper & pens.]

•  Organise your students into pairs and hand out Resource D & pens. Ask your students to read the first Original Shakespeare epilogue sections out loud to each other.
• Ask them to underline anything they think Shakespeare uses to make his audience listen or respond in any way. Eg: repetitions of certain words, humour, flattery, blackmail, reminding them of the themes of the play.
•  Now ask them to read the lines explaining the meaning of the epilogue. Do they agree with this interpretation? Can they fill in the blank lines?
•  Now ask them to read the second epilogue between them, rewritten by cast member, Robin Soans and note down the tricks he uses to get the same effects. Does he do anything extra? In which ways does Robin’s version match or differ from Shakespeare’s? What does this tell them about the production this epilogue was written for?
•  Challenge your pairs to fill in the blank lines explaining Robin’s meaning.
• Discuss and compare the findings of your pairs as a whole group.

Discussion Extension:

[You will need big paper & pens or a whiteboard.]

•  Discuss the meaning of the word ‘melancholy’. What other words do we use today to describe these feelings? Why has Shakespeare put a character like Jaques in a romantic comedy? Does Shakespeare intend Jaques to be a comical character or a serious one?
• What could have happened to Jaques to make him feel this way? One event? A series of events? Was he born this way? Jaques is one of the few characters in the play that does not experience change or fall in love. What might make him change?
•  In our production, much older actors play these roles. What difference does age make to a conversation like this?

"Watching an older actress playing Rosalind, there’s a certain physicality that you cannot escape because it’s in the text. All of a sudden you’re watching a 70+ woman having these physical responses that are quite young and that’s very beautiful.”

- Nastazja Domaradzka, Assistant Director, As You Like It, RSC 2023

This performance activity, in two parts, examines Rosalind’s knowledge of the sexes and explores the stereotypes she describes. [You will need: a large, clear space, copies of Resource E: Stereotypesfrom the Resource section of this page, pens.]

Part A: Snap Decisions

• Ask your students to walk briskly around the room, filling all the empty gaps so they do not collide. When you say ‘FREEZE!’ ask them to create a frozen image or tableau of the following:
  • a lovesick princess
  • a lovesick shepherd
  • love at first sight (in pairs)
  • forbidden love (in groups of 3)
  • marriage (in groups of 4)
  • young love (in pairs)
  • love in old age (in pairs)
• As they create their images, ask them to notice when they make quick decisions about the choices they are making. How are they showing the men in love compared to the women? Is there a noticeable difference in the images of age? Are any of their quick decisions based on stereotypes? Are stereotypes easier to recognise and why?

Part B: Rosalind's Performance

• Organise your students into pairs and hand out copies of Resource E and pens. Ask your students to read the scene out loud and make note of the different behaviour of men and women that Rosalind describes.
• Ask your pairs to discuss the following and feedback to the whole group: How is Rosalind hoping to affect Orlando? Does she really believe men and women are like this? Does it make a difference what age Rosalind and Orlando are? Have they been in love before? Have they been hurt before?
•  Now ask each pair to team up with another pair, making a group of 4
• Explain that one pair are to read the scene again and the other pair are to illustrate the images that Rosalind creates, either in frozen images, mime or an improvised scene. Encourage them to think about how Orlando will react to these images / scenes and how Rosalind might help create them.
• Invite your groups to share their illustrated scenes. 

“There is a timelessness that comes with love and no matter how old we are, love still feels the same. In the case of Orlando and Rosalind, it’s a very young love, like a giddy butterfly.”

- Nastazja Domaradzka, Assistant Director, As You Like It, RSC 2023

This writing activity offers students a chance to explore the poetry that Shakespeare creates for Orlando and write some of their own [You will need: copies of Resource F: Two Love Poems, paper & pens.]

•  Organise your students into a big circle, sitting down and hand out copies of Resource F. Explain that the first poem is one of Shakespeare’s most famous love sonnets and the second is a love poem that Orlando writes to Rosalind in As You Like It.
• Read the first sonnet out loud, taking one line each and discuss language techniques that Shakespeare uses. Eg: rhyming schemes, rhythm, choice of words, imagery.
• Now read Orlando’s poem in the same way and compare the two. Which is better? Why? Discuss what Shakespeare does to make Orlando’s poem different. What does he want the audience to think of Orlando. What does Orlando’s poetry do to the play? To Rosalind?
•  Hand each student a piece of paper and a pen and invite them to write their own love poem for Orlando. Encourage them to use the same tricks that Shakespeare does: obvious rhymes, plain rhythms, poor choice of words, repetition, anything they can think of to make their poem unconvincing.
• Now ask your students to place their poem on the floor, face down and walk around the room as if they are Rosalind in the forest of Arden. Remind them that they are deeply in love with Orlando and have never felt this way before about anyone.
• Ask the students to stop and invite one Rosalind to pick up the nearest poem to them and read it out loud to the group. Repeat this until you’ve heard all of the poems.
• Hang the poems up on the wall just like Orlando hung his on the trees.

Extension Activity: The Age of Love

• Following on from the last activity, ask your students to imagine they are a much older version of Orlando, remembering when he first met Rosalind.
• Invite them to revisit the wall of hanging poems to reflect on how he felt and what he wrote about the woman he loved/still loves.
• Now hand out paper and pens and ask your Orlandos to write a short paragraph describing how they met Rosalind and what was it about her that inspired his poetry. Encourage them to be as accurate as possible about their memory. Where were they? What did she look like? How does he feel about his poetry now after all these years? How does he feel about Rosalind? Are they still together?
•  Invite your Orlandos to swap their memories and read them out. These can be hung together with the poems.
• Discuss as a group how age affects memory and emotion. Have Orlando’s memories grown more distant or fonder? Can his memory of the moment be trusted?

“At the end of the production, there is quite a big reveal. This moment is about the magic of theatre, where we can be transported somewhere else. We are able to travel through time and space in this life form of ours because there is this contract between the people onstage and the audience. For the next 2 or 3 hours, we are going to spend our belief and trust in this.

- Nastazja Domaradzka, Assistant Director, As You Like It, RSC 2023

The following performance activity allows students to create their own time-travelling transformation by exploring of one of Shakespeare’s most famous speeches on time and life. [You will need: copies of Resource G: All The World’s A Stage: from the Resource section of this page cut into sections.]

•  Organise your students into 4 groups and hand out two of the sections of Resource G. There ideally should be 4 or 5 in each group. If you have greater numbers, create more groups and hand them one scene each.
• Explain that they are going to create a mini-scene from their section of the speech using every member of the group.
• Encourage them to decide the following:
  • How will they deliver the lines? As one narrator, as a chorus or taking one each?
  • Whether their scene is set in the world of the forest or the world of the court and how might this affect their characters?
  •  They cannot cut any lines but they can add any lines to the characters mentioned.
  • How can they create their mini-scene without set, scenery or costume?
  • And most importantly, how they will represent the different ages of the characters in each ‘Stage’?
•  Give the groups a few extra minutes to rehearse their section(s) and sit the groups around the room in order of their sections.
• Invite each group to perform their section.

“If you’re mounting a reunion of a production, not everyone is going to be there. Some people have passed, are no longer in the business or just don’t want to bother. So there are roles that need filling in. The young actors are there to step in any time. They watch throughout, understudy the cast and prompt. The device of having the younger actors onstage with scripts prompting is important for the older actors who are remembering their past performance. It is very much a part of the play."

- Nastazja Domaradzka, Assistant Director, As You Like It, RSC 2023

This writing activity allows students to explore the function of memory and how it can be captured and distorted through language. [You will need: objects brought from home (if you have time to plan for this), paper & pens.]

Part A: Precious Objects 

• Ask your students to bring one object from home that represents a fond memory they have from the past. If you do not have time to prepare for this, ask them to draw their object on a piece of paper.
• Organise your students into pairs and ask them to take turns spending two minutes describing their object to their partner and what it means to them. Encourage them to include as many details as possible.
• When they have done this, give them 5 minutes to each write a short speech or ‘memory’ about their partner’s object, imagining they are their partner explaining what it means to them and why. Encourage them to use all the details they can remember.
• Now invite students to present their partner’s object (or drawings) to the whole group as if they were their own and read their written ‘memories’ out loud.
• Discuss as a group how it felt to have their memory described by someone else. Was it accurate? Was anything missed out? Was anything made up or exaggerated? How did it make them feel? Did they feel responsible for getting each other’s memory right?

Part B: I Remember 

•  Now ask your students to choose one character from the play that they feel they have a connection with or would like to explore further.
• Ask them to find an object (either something they bring from home, find in the room or draw on a piece of paper) that might mean something to this character. Encourage them to use their knowledge of the play to help them create this memory.
• Once they have chosen their objects, give your students 5 minutes to write a paragraph, as if they are their character, describing what this object reminds them of and why it is important to them.
• If you have older students, encourage them to find a couple of lines their character says in the play which might link to this memory and which they can incorporate into their writing. Eg:
  • Rosalind’s fear of being banished: “Alas, what danger will it be to us, / Maids as we are, to travel forth so far!” (Act 1, scene 3)
  •  Celia’s determination to run away: “Shall we be sunder'd? shall we part, sweet girl? / No: let my father seek another heir.” (Act 1, scene 3)
  •  Silvius’ unrequited love for Phoebe: “Or if thou hast not broke from company / Abruptly, as my passion now makes me, / Thou hast not loved. / O Phoebe, Phoebe, Phoebe!” (Act 2, scene 4)
•  Invite your students to share their objects and read out their memories in character (including their quotes if they have them).

Discussion & Extension Activity: Memory Interviews

• As a whole group, share any memories you have from older members of the family. Are there any stories they remember being told by their older relatives or friends?
•  If you have time, set a project for your students to interview an older member of the family about a memory from their childhood.
• Encourage them to record this memory on their mobile phone or devices and then write it down word for word, including every pause, ‘er’, laugh, distraction, false start that the person makes when telling their memory.
• Invite students to share their memory interviews by reading them to the rest of the group. If they prefer, they can perform these memories, as if they are the person telling it.
• Discuss the results together: Are there any common themes in these memories at all? Which stood out and why? Were there any emotional memories? Did they connect to any of these memories as they heard them? For example, did they remind them of experiences they have had themselves?
•  Display these written memories somewhere in the class. If you have further time to explore this activity, you could turn them into a group performance, create a group memory of your own.