All the world might be a stage, but on Theatre Calgary’s the soliloquies of Shakespeare become the musical songs of John, Paul, George and Ringo in a fantastical reconnection of As You Like It.
That play, which is best known for the all-the-world-is-a-stage and the seven-ages-of-man speech, is one that also naturally lends itself to the music of the Beatles—after all, what better tells the romance of Orlando and Rosalind than Can’t Buy Me Love.
The production is the brainchild of Theatre Calgary veteran director Daryl Cloran (Made in Italy, Liberation Days) who conceptualized taking out about half the text of As You Like It and replacing it with Beatles songs during Vancouver’s Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival.
“It was already a really musical play. It had a few songs in it, and a lot of poetry to it, so you get the you get the full Shakespearean story. But instead of instead of some of the big Shakespearean monologues, I’ve replaced those with songs that do the same job,” said Cloran.
“It’s not like a jukebox musical where you sort of pause the story to listen to your favorite song and then pick up the story again. These stories really keep the character journeys going forward, and you get full musical experience.”
He said that the music of The Beatles makes the Bard’s words more accessible to audiences not necessarily familiar with all of the references used in the 17th-Century work.
Cloran even slipped in his own pun, worthy of the Bard himself—the original Arden forest becomes the Okanagan, which instantly makes familiar to a modern audience the familiar reference that Shakespeare was making in the original work.
“It does really help people access the story in a way that they never thought possible,” Cloran said.
Beatles and Bard a natural fit
The joy was just how well the music fit with the story—so much so that he said that it almost felt like The Beatles were writing music just for As You Like It at times, Cloran said.
“There’s a part in the play where a character comes on and says ‘a fool a fool, I met a fool in the forest.’ And it’s not hard to imagine that then they break into singing fool on the hill, right? So there’s those kinds of connections that are fantastic,” he said.
Oscar Derkx, who is himself a veteran of several of the As You Like It performances playing Orlando, said that it was a breathtaking production, and sometimes literally for the actors on stage who are both having to perform the madcap scenes while on occasion instantly breaking into song.
“I’ll be honest, I’m trying to catch my breath sometimes before I go into a song. But you know, it all makes it just like a really fun dynamic show to perform for that very reason,” Derkx said.
“You’re out of breath. You’re singing this belt in his high song and then you go right into another scene. It’s like a roller coaster as a performer.”
Getting to do both the heady words of one of literature’s most famous characters while also performing some of the world’s most famous songs, he said, was like a dream.
“I love performing Shakespeare. I love singing Beatles music,” Derkx said.
“I feel like the two actually mesh together really well because they’re some of the best writers right? Shakespeare is one of the best playwrights ever. The Beatles are some of the best songwriters ever if you put them together. It’s a match made in heaven.”
As You Like It runs from Feb. 27 to March 24 at the Max Bell Theatre at Arts Commons. For more information, see www.theatrecalgary.com/shows/2023-2024-as-you-like-it.
Photos from As You Like It
