As You Like It (2016)

Following the success of its last two summer Shakespeare productions, Entity Theatre returns to the Amphitheater, Englischer Garten, to present As You Like It, directed by Conny Loder and produced by Ken Lawler. Duchess Fredericka has usurped the throne from her sister, Duchess Senior, who has fled into the forest of Arden, with her loyal ladies in waiting. When Rosalind, daughter to Duchess Senior, watches the young Orlando win a court wrestlingmatch, she instantly falls in love. Threatened by Duchess Fredericka, who is jealous of all the attention Rosalind receives, Rosalind decides to flee the court together with Celia, Duchess Fredericka’s daughter, and the witty court jester, Touchstone. Both women take on new identities: Rosalind becomes a young man by the name of Ganymede and Celia becomes Aliena. Orlando also flees the court, sick of being ill-treated by his very own brother. Meanwhile in the forest of Arden, the melancholic Jaques, loyal courtier to Duchess Senior, ponders on the harsh conditions of living in the forest. And Silvius, an unusually poetic shepherd, is madly in love with the cruel shepherdess Phebe, who simply ignores him. When Ganymede and Aliena arrive in the forest of Arden, they soon run into Phebe and Silvius. Phebe, smitten by the novelty of Ganymede, falls deeply in love with ‘him.’ To complicate matters, Celia reports that Orlando has now also arrived in the forest … How will Rosalind solve her dilemma?