August is pretty much the perfect time for Shakespeare. Maybe not if you’re a high school sophomore, dreading going back to studying ‘King Lear,’ and maybe not if you’re trying to shut off your brain before September starts and everyone has to get back to real work (I admit to being one of these people). But given a little attention, a Shakespearean comedy is really what late summer needs most-- romantic intrigue, trysts in lush forests, and a happy ending about as implausible and uplifting as a given episode of ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.’
Perhaps it’s with this in mind that Kenneth Branagh is bringing us his adaptation of ‘As You Like It,’ airing on HBO on August 21. Branagh, of course, is one of the foremost living Shakespearean actors (as well as the filmed embodiment of Harry Potter’s Gilderoy Lockhart, but I digress). He’s made five Shakespearean films already, though this is his first for television; given that it’s HBO, though, the man is definitely not slumming.
Branagh has taken the classic 16th-century play and brought it to a community of Westerners in 19th-century Japan. Bryce Dallas Howard stars as Rosalind, the strong-willed daughter of a Duke who has been usurped by his brother; Rosalind is eventually forced to flee with her cousin, Celia (Romola Garai) to the forest, where her father and a community of exiles are in hiding. She and Celia have disguised themselves as men, which becomes complicated when Rosalind’s suitor Orlando (David Oyelowo) seeks her out for romantic advice. The classic Shakespearean love triangles and misunderstandings, found in everything from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ to ‘Twelfth Night’ ensue, resulting in a happy ending and, naturally, lots ofweddings. Kevin Kline, Alfred Molina and Brian Blessed also star
‘As You Like It’ contains one of Shakespeare’s most famous soliloquies-- the one that begins “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,”-- and is considered one of his better, if trifling, comedies. While it’d be hard to get me to make it through ‘Julius Caesar’ this time of year, it seems like some talented actors, beautiful scenery and courtly love might be exactly what the dog days of August are calling for.
