Andrew Gillies (1987 As You Like It)
CBC Learning 1987: Andrew Gillies
AS YOU LIKE IT
Stratford Festival Classics
Regular Price: $227.00
Product ID: WLF-83-06
Format: VHS
This delightful romantic comedy, lavishly staged by the Stratford Festival, has been a favourite with audiences throughout the centuries. In this acclaimed production John Hirsch directs Roberta Maxwell and Rosemary Dunsmore as Rosalind and Celia, with Andrew Gillies as Orlando and Nicholas Pennell as Jaques. Pitting young love against the vanity of the court, the fairytale play tells the familiar story of exiled lovers reunited, woodland meanderings, mistaken identities and political wrongs set right. A brilliant and magical celebration of romance, passion and unity. Rich in mythology, the play deals with the transformation of souls from evil to good.
Duration: 158:00
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© CBC Learning
Excerpt from Now Toronto 12/17/08: Andrew Gillies
From Stratford to your home: Last-minute gift ideas for the theatre or comedy lover on your holiday list
Jon Kaplan
AS YOU LIKE IT D: John Hirsch, w/ Roberta Maxwell, Rosemary Dunsmore and Andrew Gillies (CBC/Morningstar, 1983) Rating: NNNN
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING D: Peter Moss, w/ Richard Monette, Tandy Cronyn, William Hutt and Brent Carver (CBC/Morningstar, 1987). Rating: NNN
The CBC reaches back into its vaults for a pair of 1980s Stratford productions, two of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies, As You Like It and Much Ado About Nothing. The 1983 As You, helmed by John Hirsch, sets up a surprisingly oppressive, dictatorial world to play out a story of love and regeneration, making the happy ending even sweeter than usual.
Anchoring the piece are Roberta Maxwell and Rosemary Dunsmore as cousins Rosalind and Celia, who enter the wintry forest of Arden and discover mates and family. The two actors have fine chemistry and show us the journey that each woman travels to find contentment.
Hirsch’s production has many other pluses, not least of them the wonderful Nicholas Pennell, who creates a tousle-haired Jaques, less peevish than many; every scene he’s in provides a lesson on how to speak the Bard and draw a rich characterization. Andrew Gillies makes an energetically youthful Orlando.
© Now Toronto