Hippies Make ‘As You Like It’ Silly, Man

It may well be Shakespeare’s silliest play. “As You Like It” has as a minor plot a farfetched tale about a usurped dukedom and a disenfranchised younger brother. It is really only an excuse for comic shenanigans in the Forest of Arden in an Elizabethan version of “The Dating Game.”

Modern directors have a ball tacking even sillier concepts onto the play. A perfect example is Grove Theater Center’s staging at Fullerton’s Muckenthaler Cultural Center.

Director Kevin Cochran for some reason has placed it in the late 1960s, “in and around a political seat of power and a forest commune.”

Oddly, it all works pretty well once we get out of the castle and into the hippie enclave. The nobility of some of the characters is forgotten in the sometimes authentic 1960s costumes, and the bumbling shepherds pretend to smoke enough pot to conjure up the era.

The story describes Oliver, the older brother who has inherited his father’s estate and has tried to obliterate his younger brother, Orlando. Along with this, the Usurping Duchess has tossed out her sister, the Banished Duchess.

Cochran has fiddled with a number of the characters. The duchesses were originally dukes, and several other male figures are played by women. Anyway, the banished folk live in hippiedom, with exotic caftans, beads, bongs and such around them.

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This is where Cochran’s concept comes to life, and when it does it can be very funny.

The highlight is Jane Macfie’s Rosalind, who poses as Ganymede, a boy in the forest. Usually actresses playing Rosalind couldn’t possibly be mistaken for a guy, but Macfie, dressed in roughhewn pants and top, with a bristle-brush mustache, manages to somewhat resemble a young John Denver. And she creates some magic moments.

Her love, Orlando, the younger brother, is played with much dash by Charles Currier. His pretending that Ganymede is his Rosalind makes more sense than it usually does and gets a lot more laughs. The comic flair of Amy Griffin as Rosalind’s pal Celia adds to the fun.

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Terra Shelman plays the Usurping Duchess, a nasty type if ever there was one, and the commune’s saccharine Banished Duchess with an abandon that never goes overboard and works well in this setting. Her hippie Jaques, underplayed by Daniel Sapecky, is no match for her.

Touchstone, one of the Bard’s most charming rogues, is a buxom lass here, given outsized but controlled panache by Melanie Ewbank, and her little shepherd sweetheart, played here by brawny Mark Swangel (who doubles nicely as wrestler Charles at the castle), who is very funny getting more and more stoned, being pushed about in a grocery cart by his libidinous Touchstone.

Ron Graham’s mean elder brother Oliver is inconsistently played by Ron Graham, who is sometimes effective but usually not. The lightness of touch by other romantic bucolic types gives the evening a jovial edge in the performances of Gregory Joseph Allen as Silvius, Holly Jeanne and Catherine Best in several roles.

* “As You Like It,” Muckenthaler Cultural Center, 1201 W. Malvern, Fullerton. Thursday-Sunday, 8:15 p.m. Ends Sunday. $20.50-$24.50. (Dinner available for $14 extra on Fridays and Saturdays.) (714) 741-9555. Running time: 2 hours.

Charles Currier: Orlando

Jane Macfie: Rosalind

Amy Griffin: Celia

Ron Graham: Oliver

Mark Swangel: Charles/Andrew

Terra Shelman: Usurping Duchess/Banished Duchess

Melanie Ewbank: Touchstone

Daniel Sapecky: Jaques

Holly Jeanne: Alice/Phebe

Catherine Best: Le Beau/Corin/Wilma

Gregory Joseph Allen: Silvius

A Grove Theater Center production of Shakespeare’s comedy. Producers: Kevin Cochran and Charles Johanson. Director: Kevin Cochran. Production design: Leonard Ogden. Fight direction: Payson Burt. Stage manager: Armina LaManna.