“Now go we in content to liberty, and not to banishment.”

I reread As You Like It for the first time in years when the audition for this job came through, and Celia’s line at the close of the play’s first act was what initially galvanised me to want to be a part of this production. I’d encountered As You Like It before, however never with a great amount of (God forgive me) enthusiasm – it isn’t Shakespeare’s plottiest play, or his goriest, or his most magical. After that first re-read I felt almost ashamed to have been so ambivalent towards it as it may, I would argue, be Shakespeare’s most romantic play, however Me-In-October is not yet aware of this. Me-In-October is instead thinking that it’s the play with all the monologues that remind her of drama school auditions – and no one who’s gone through those wants to be reminded of them.

But speaking of first acts, I should begin this properly. The above ‘me’ in question is, well, me – Grace, 26 years old, and originally from Middlesbrough in the North East of England. As an incredibly clumsy child, my parents enrolled me in ballet classes to try and improve my balance and co-ordination; ballet turned into tap, tap turned into Saturday morning theatre groups, and before anyone really knew it I was eighteen years old with suitcase in hand moving to London to try and be an actor. Several years down the line and here I am, doing just that! The beautiful irony of this is that I am, of course, still as uncoordinated now as I was back then, except now I have a degree to break my fall.

You join us on a particularly rainy afternoon in Brixton, smack in the middle of our first week of rehearsals – Al, Benjy, Joanna, Sam, and I, the intrepid troupe taxed with bringing As You Like It from page to stage. Five actors, no director, twenty-or-so characters, as many props and costumes as we can fit in a 22kg suitcase, and five weeks until we head out stateside to perform at venues from Indiana to Austin. The word ‘daunted’ has never come out of my mouth as often as it has these first few days. I’m a newbie to AFTLS, and I’ve never worked in an environment like this before; self-direction and collaboration and relying on your fellow actors to really build up whatever this weird and wonderful process may take the form of. Not only that, but we’re staring down the barrel of some of Shakespeare’s wittiest, wordiest, and most wonderfully written characters, with so much to unravel and discover in the text and the relationships – as well as how in the world we’re going to do that whilst also, in several cases, playing both characters involved in the relationship in question. Sometimes at the same time. My head’s spinning all over again just writing this, but the reason why I wanted to do this so badly was because of how intimidating I found the prospect of it all – if something scares you just the right amount, all the more reason to sprint towards it screaming.

It must be said, I’m thrilled I sprinted. It’s been a wildly positive start, and I’m already immensely proud of the rehearsal room we’re cultivating together. It’s a room I look forward to walking into every morning, one where we solve problems not by simplifying things but by leaning into the complexities and seeing how best we can unknot ourselves from the tangle we make. Our lack of director may seem slightly bonkers at first, but it’s fascinating to see what springs from us just getting a scene on its feet immediately and working our way through it, via whatever Shakespeare leaves for us on the page blended with wherever our instincts may steer us. Our first proper day was spent running the whole play, beginning to end, with zero preparation, just to see what would come to the surface. It’s mad. It’s exhilarating. It’s brilliant, and I’m having a blast.

And beyond just the work, the five of us feel like a really spectacular team. Truly, if you have people around you who can carry you through a 5:30am alarm for appointments at the US embassy, they’re people that are worth putting your trust in. We’re all vastly different individuals – in approach to the work, in life and perspectives, even in experience working with AFTLS – but we’ve gotten each other few a fair share of challenges already and I look forward to seeing what the next ones we’re facing will be. Today we tackled the wrestling match in Act 1 – which, in our version, sees Sam doubling as Orlando and Charles and, therefore, having a boxing match against himself – and had our first deep-dive into the music of the show; the extremities of focus and laughter and silliness and ingenuity and just sheer joy have all been in full swing. I don’t think we’ll get very far at all without that last one.

As You Like It is a tonally fascinating play – it’s pastoral, but also at times a parody of pastoral, and the main character is a woman but also a man but also a woman-playing-a-man-playing-a-woman, and it’s a love story and maybe even a musical but also there’s war and hatred and bad poetry and identity politics and queerness and, naturally, sheep. To find the joy in all that variation, and so much joy at that, is something I’m grateful for and look forward to us diving into deeper, even as we’re thinking about how best to draw out some of the darker aspects of the play. I’d reassure you we weren’t going too dark by telling you all about the mouth trumpet/kazoo duet, but I fear that may be giving the game away too much. Like all of Shakespeare’s comedies, that vein of darkness can be found easily if you look in the right places; tyranny, murder, fratricide, refugees, it’s a hard tightrope to walk and still keep your audience certain that it’ll all work out alright in the end. And it does, in spades – As You Like It ends with (spoiler alert) no less than four marriages! But then again, when so much of the play is about duality, it makes sense for us as actors/directors/designers/musicians/stage managers/candlestick-makers to feel that duality just as much as the characters do. Throughout this whole adventure there will be good days, and hard days, and even days we will likely neglect to share with this blog entirely, but much like the courtiers venturing into the unknown of Arden, I’m certain we’ll be changed by them. I truly can’t wait to see where this particular liberty might lead us – it feels like somewhere special already.

PS – one of my favourite parts of mounting a new project is creating a character playlist. I love using music as a way into a character’s state of mind, or to explore their tastes or circumstances, plus it’s nice to have a vibe-appropriate warm-up playlist to hand. Hopefully this will work in this format (I am typically something of a tech disaster…) but if you care to have a listen to the music I’ll be using to inspire my spin on Rosalind, a link should be available here:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1nnViaCPfpWQfaGSpgVkQ6?si=xCl_5aQNQRKNCAj9EADEaQ&pi=SxLDk14wR-uSr