Shakespeare’s popular pastoral romance, As You Like It, features disguised lovers, exiled brothers, multiple marriage plots, a wrestling bout and the famous Forest of Arden. Friendships are formed and lovers are reunited in a play that explores the intersection of love, ‘play’ and deception. Rosalind’s unique performance of gender, both as herself and in disguise as Ganymede, provides the pivot on which the play turns, leading us into the magic of the forest where music, dancing and masques showcase the talents of the King’s Men company who performed As You Like It in the late Elizabethan period. From the lovers, Rosalind and Orlando, to Jaques, the melancholy cynic, and Touchstone, the sly jester, this joyous comedy contains well-loved characters who take on new resonances in a contemporary edition which explores the play’s rich global afterlives. The Arden Shakespeare Fourth Series includes a new edition of every Shakespeare play, the poems and sonnets. Each volume is edited afresh by a leading scholar specialising in cutting-edge research on performance, gender, sexuality and race. These editions cover everything you need to know as a student, teacher, researcher, theatre-maker and performer of Shakespeare’s works today.
