As You Like It review – French aristocratic trappings bring fresh comedy to Arden

Shakespeare’s Globe, London In a lively and deftly designed production, gowns and wigs fit for Versailles give way to plainer disguises as banished courtiers pursue happiness in the country For a play that pivots around the liberating disguises inside Arden’s bucolia, this production of the Bard’s pastoral comedy begins the dress-up long before its characters enter the forest for their games on gender and identity. Duke Frederick’s court resembles that of Louis XVI’s Versailles, with flamboy...

By Arifa Akbar