On Stage: Rivalries wreak havoc in two plays
A hippie 'As You Like It'
By Joe Adcock, P-I Theater Critic

In many ways, William Shakespeare's 1599 romantic comedy "As You Like It" is similar to "Three Days of Rain." The main characters are over-privileged 20-somethings. Matters of inheritance and smoldering rivalries create conflict.

But in "As You Like It," stakes are high and risks are maximal. Duke Frederick keeps threatening to kill people after he swipes his brother's birthright. The Duke's neighbor Oliver chisels his younger brother, Orlando, and then puts out a contract to have him murdered.

A lot of people run for their lives. They find asylum among fields, farms and forests. They sing and pal around. Some of them fall in love. Before you can say, "Oh, look at the time! It's almost 10:30," an immaculate happy ending is well under way.

Taproot Theatre director Karen Lund presents "As You Like It" as a 1960s hippie adventure. Peace and love types abandon the vile and violent city. They set up a rural commune. The result is good, good, good vibrations.

Some of Lund's actors provide refreshingly novel interpretations of exceedingly familiar characters ("As You Like It" is Shakespeare's most often produced play). Marianne Savell gives a certain Sonny Bono swagger to her portrayal of Rosalind, a girl who pretends to be a boy who is pretending to be a girl.

Patrick Allcorn is ingeniously goofy as a shepherd whose love is brutally spurned by a peevish farm girl. As a court jester who tags along with the exiles, Bob Borwick manages to fashion effective comedy routines out of bits of 16th-century shtick that in many productions are merely awkward embarrassments.

As with any staging of a Shakespeare play in a modern setting, there are some graceless moments in the current Taproot production. But, also, there are felicitous surprises. Who would ever have guessed that a perfect tune to go with Shakespeare's Act Two song lyrics could be borrowed from Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind?"

"As You Like It" runs through March 1 at Taproot Theatre, 204 N. 85th St. Tickets $25-$33, $2 off for students and seniors, $15 for under 25, $10 for students with ID on Feb. 7 and 13, pay what you can Feb. 6, $54 dinner and theater package Feb. 14; 206-781-9707 or taproottheatre.org.