by William Shakespeare
Translation: Virgil Teodorescu

Artistic direction: Alexandru Colpacci
Assistant director: Petre Panait
Scenography: Vioara Bara
Music: Delia Serban
Premiere date: December 5, 1996

One of Shakespeare's most representative pastoral comedies, "As You Like It" unfolds a lively action, in which passions, especially love, set in motion a picturesque group of characters grouped around a duke who has lost his prerogatives - through the usurpation of the throne by his brother - and has taken refuge in the Forest of Arden, along with a few faithful courtiers. At the court of the usurping duke, only the legitimate duke's daughter, Rosalind, remains to keep her cousin and friend, Celia, company. The fate of the girls takes a very special turn when the usurping duke orders Rosalind to follow her father into exile, and Celia decides to accompany her good friend in exile. Considering that it would be reckless to travel in their expensive clothes, the two ladies disguise themselves, assuming new identities: Rosalind becomes the young peasant Ganymede, and Celia - his sister, Aliena. Arriving in the Forest of Arden, the girls will become participants in a series of events through which all suffering will be alleviated and all love shared. The idylls of Rosalinda-Orlando and Celia-Oliver are joined by two others: Audrey-Tocilă and Thebe-Silvius. The play ends with the joy of the four simultaneous weddings and with the news that the usurping duke returns the duchy to his brother, giving up the power acquired through illegitimate means. Only the aphoristic observations of the jester Tocilă and the bitter reflections of the courtier Jacques (about the man abandoned in need, about the irreversible passage of time, about the hypocrisy at court, as well as the famous monologue in which the world is likened to the theater) draw attention to the fact that in reality, life is not so simple and as in the play in which everything ends in complete harmony.

Distribution:

The exiled duke and Frederick the usurper:  Ion Abrudan
Amiens:  Ileana Iurciuc
Jacques:  Daniel Vulcu
The Beau:  Nicolae Barosan
Charles:  Tiberiu Covaci
Oliver de Bois:  Ilie Turcu
Jacques de Bois:  Dorin Presecan
Orlando:  Doru Firte
Adam:  Eugen Tugulea
Grindstone:  Petre Panait
Sir Oliver Martext:  Nicholas Thomas
Corin:  George Voinese
Silvius:  Alexander Cornea
William:  John Coman
Rosalind:  Roxana Ivanciu
Celia:  Andra Tudor
Phoebe:  Elvira Platon Rîmbu
Audrey:  Mariana Presecan

Technical director: Eugenia Popa
Prompter: Iuliana Chelu
Lighting: Balogh Iosif, Laviniu Goron
Sound: Sorin Domide