In the Globe's production of As You Like It, the style of speech is a lot different to what I expected. The way that the actors speak is a lot more what I would expect from a soap opera or drama. It is very drawn out and classical sounding, which I didn't expect from a comedy. The ends of words are drawn out, which I understand is because of the size of the space. By drawing out what they are saying, the actors are able to project the voices over a large distance. Also, the actors are very interactive with the audience, something that makes the play feel a little more like what I would have expected from a contempory Shakespeare play.
Something else that I noticed that was different to the play was the way that the humor is portrayed. The humor is very in your face and not subtle at all, moving against what I expected, which was that the humor would be carried in the undertones. This is because of the sexual innuendo. However, in the Globe production, the humour takes on a slapstick style, becoming very overt. This is something that I didn't like about the Globe's production, as it removed some of the wit and power from some of the comedic speeches.
The characterisation of Orlando is something that I really liked. The actor playing him is very active and strong sounding, and plays the part exactly how I would have imagined him to be. He's very strong willed and insolent, exactly how the script makes him appear. The other characters are similarly portrayed how I expected them to be, with one exception. The character of Touchstone is very over the top and overt, which I did not expect at all. I expected for him to be very witty, and for his speech to be very sly and cunning. However, in the play, as I mentioned earlier, he is very over the top, which may actually speak to the intended audience for the initial play, which was the peasantry.
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