If you’ve been reading these reviews for a while, you’ll notice I love me some context. Especially surrounding William Shakespeare’s plays. One of my favorite things about the existence of Richmond Shakespeare is that they’ve forced me to go back to the English Lit textbooks, deep dive into some YouTube lectures, search for Elizabethan and modern criticisms, absorb philosophical dissertations, and most fun, just have after-show breakdowns over drinks with my guests. This is all in the service of really finding the beauty and depth in his work, which is damn near bottomless.
As You Like It was written as Shakespeare cemented himself as king of all media in England. It’s 1599, Christopher Marlowe has recently passed, and he becomes a stakeholder in the brand new Globe Theatre, where he would famously debut all his following works. This is the equivalent of opening the Lincoln Center in NY, or the Kennedy in DC at the time. His works are now massive commercial successes, and the dude is dripping in bling. As You Like It is programmed to be the Globe’s initial blockbuster offering. He’s done comedies and historical dramas, but has of yet to unveil most of his meaty tragedies Hamlet, Julius Caesar etc. He needed a hit show. And he got one.
As You Like It is one of my favorite of his works, and the one I feel has the most modern cinematic feel. I will explain. He played with unconventional plot development, existential philosophy (that he’d continue in Hamlet, Macbeth and others), and a deep exploration of the nature of love beyond mummery and spectacle. The play reads like Camus at his most morosely absurd. It progresses like a French New Wave comedy, bouncing from topic and setting, careening between levity and profundity. It could easily be a 90’s or early aughts teen comedy that takes itself too seriously but still has something to say. As only he could be expected to do, he pulls it off with some of the most intensely personal and gravity-bound introspections, multi-layered jokes that provoke the Marx Brothers as much as the Coen Brothers. He more than pulls it off, of course. He masters it.
The Forest of Arden, where everyone gets exiled to, plays like a big underground party. All the cool people are there living their best life, having been kicked out of Court by some square and hateful betch – the usurping queen. The countercultures of today show a great parallel. You’ve got your gendernauts, gothy emo kids, cool aunts, comedians, poets, and working classes – all in a spot the elites wouldn’t go to if you paid them to. Bushwick in 2008, Silverlake in the 90s, Northside or Scott’s Addition in 2013. The hijinks there are laid out like an indie film describing a night in the making – just ambling towards resolution, with no rudder to speak of. Like the best night in Bushwick in 2008. Lovers love, shepherds shep, and poets quarrel. Songs get sung, and somehow in the end, Arden is THE place to be. No one at all is talking about going back to the castle. Billy Shakes at his most hipster.
How did the company at Richmond Shakespeare do? Well, it absolutely was the catalyst for me having the above opinions. I literally sat on my picnic blanket and got jealous that I didn’t cast and direct it. Claire Wittman did, and she deserves the Director’s chair as often as she wants it.
The incredible grasp that she and her cast have on this play is immediately obvious, with Kendall Walker’s Rosalind leading the pack on the stage. She finds the beat impeccably, giving punchlines within the prose as well as surprising and artfully accented embellishments. Even throwaway glances, gestures, and stammerings are pitch-perfect. She finds a way to make you forget you are listening to 16th-century English and interprets the humor like giant subtitles coded in Millennial. She has a long and storied history on Richmond stages and, if we are lucky and eat our vegetables, will continue to. I honestly don’t think anyone could play this character better.
This is going to be a long list of back-pattings, because to not bring flowers to this review would be a shame.
Joel White nails Orlando as the lovestruck underachiever in his brother’s shadow, and gives the character a knowing arch to the brow when confronted with the disguised Rosalind later in the play. He gets his biggest laughs when he’s not even on the stage. Chalk that up to clever blocking and perfect use of the garden space the show took place in, but damn, he kills it. Open-faced and naive as a ham sandwich, he serves up the dummy in knight’s breeches well.
Nora Ogunleye as Celia is stalwart, upstanding, loyal, and somehow still manages to be compelling. She’s a joy to watch as she channels the character who has the least guile about her without making it genial wallpaper. The character, as written, is rarely dynamic. In Nora’s hands, it is essential grounding to the rest of the insanity.
These next three, oh my shit.
Elle Meerovich could make a corpse chortle. The audience knows it ahead of time too. Their entrance to the stage was met with immediate applause, and for damn good reason. You will not have a bad time at the theatre if Elle is performing. As Touchstone, Elle brings silliness as cuisine, a rubber chicken as duck l’orange. Their scenes with Keaton O’Neal Hillman’s Jaques (who I’ll get to in a second) are steeped in the vibe of dueling banjos – two preening intellectuals too smart for their company in a room too small for both their egos.
Paisley LoBue, who I consider one of the top performers in the city, period, showcases another masterclass in being exactly right about every single choice she makes in her performance. Her roles here aren’t as robust as others I’ve seen her tackle, but give truth to the “no small parts” idiom. The shepherdess Phebe is easily the most ‘meh’ of the characters in the play as written (to me) but has her moments elevated through Paisley’s sheer presence and comic timing.
Dixon Cashwell has been on my radar for a bit, especially after his turn as Robin in Doctor Faustus by Richmond Shakespeare. He won Best Supporting Actor at the 2026 RTCC Awards, and this might be cause for a repeat. Pardon my French, but he is fucking hilarious in this show. There is not a moment he is on stage that he doesn’t own, and when paired with Elle in drag or as an old man churning butter, is gut-busting.
I do believe Patricia Austin borrowed the ghost of Melissa McCarthy for this run. McCarthy is still alive, but her spirit must be for rent somewhere. Ms. Austin goes all-in in ways that few performers can commit to. John Belushi, McCarthy, Chris Farley, John C. Reilly, amongst few others, all have a chaotic immersion to their characters that is both the jewel and bane of every comedy act. They are more likely to make the cast laugh than the audience. As Silvius and Adam, she is daring everyone to look away to hide a break in character.
Keaton (told you I’d come back around to them) O’Neal Hillman plays Jaques like a bitchy Morrissey circa 1989 who’s both late on his rent and wearing Prada. He gets the meaty “All the world’s a stage…” monologue and actually seems like he made it up on the spot. The way the company presents this absolute scripture of literature is beautiful, and becomes one of the precious moments in this production that slow our laughter down to a lumped throat (right as Dixon makes it funny again).
Donna Marie Miller and Patrick Rooney get the straight characters in the play, but do so with all the sour sap the jokes thrown at them need to stick to. Good foils create great bones for a comedy. They punched in and got the job done. Ayden Mom I feel was underserved with some less-inspired fight choreography. Stylized as it was, and fitting the peg hole of the choice made to make it so, still made me feel like there was more to make of his talent. I’d like to see him in a higher gear, and I’m sure I’ll get the chance.
Kiyomi-Masai Rose and Sydney Wright (or, Richmond Shakespeare: The Next Generation) are exciting to watch blossom on these stages. Unless we lose them to other markets and college stages not in Richmond in the next few years, we will be seeing a lot of them both. They equally have the shine of stardom on them, and I cannot wait to see how they grow. They’re also adorable.
I would like to give special mention to the lace beard. I love you, lace beard.
While this review may just run as ‘quotes actors can put on their websites’, I want to restate that this was a very fun night at the theatre, especially when that theatre is the Sabot School’s Gilette Garden. ‘Just an absolutely choice landscape to backdrop a clever and quippy masterwork such as this. Go, feel smart and cool while indulging in William Shakespeare at his most droll – all cigarettes and sunglasses. It’s Jim Jarmusch in a tutu, lounging in the grass.
Photo by Aaron Sutten
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