A pastoral comedy, the most musical of all Shakespeare’s plays, As You Like It dives into the subject of love and the misunderstanding of gender and identity, presenting Rosalind, one of the greatest and most elaborate feminine characters of the author’s work. With a new translation by Daniel Jonas, Beatriz Batarda works alongside an absolutely exceptional cast to help us unravel this particularly interwoven yarn, a comedy of manners and deceit skilfully cross-dressing as a fierce exercise of criticism towards those social practices enforcing unhappiness and injustice. Or, if we like it, to help us laugh about the chaotic nature of the relation between sexuality, romantic relationships and power, dismantling their tragic scope and implementing a vitalist idealisation of existence.
“With this show, my bigger ambition is to explore the play’s language and the naivety of its universe, alongside this group of actors, until their bodies translate a time that is forgotten. I truly hope that we can all plunge into a kind of deep bucolic dream distanced from reality. This will be my affectionate tribute to a time of poverty, hope and revolution lived during the 70’s in Portugal.”
Beatriz Batarda
by William Shakespeare
translated by Daniel Jonas
director Beatriz Batarda
cast Bruno Nogueira, Carla Maciel, Leonor Salgueiro, Luísa Cruz, Marco Martins, Nuno Lopes, Romeu Costa, Rui Mendes, Sara Carinhas and Sérgio Praia
music Pedro Moreira
set design Arena Ensemble
set and prop maker Luís Lacerda
costume designer José António Tenente
lighting designer Nuno Meira
director’s assistant Teresa Coutinho
production director Narcisa Costa
production manager Nuno Pratas
photographer Susana Paiva
Arena Ensemble’s managing director Marta Delgado Martins
co-production Arena Ensemble, São Luiz Teatro Municipal, Teatro Nacional S. João and A Oficina/Centro Cultural Vila Flor
rating 12+
duration 3h with intermission
first performed 14th January 2014, São Luiz Teatro Municipal
sponsors Municipality of Lisbon, Central Station, Rádio Comercial
FECHAR