As You Like it

One of William Shakespeare's more accessible plays, As You Like It is a delightful romantic comedy that tickles audiences' hearts as much today as it did in Elizabethan England. The play's themes and characters cross conventional boundaries of gender, morality, and class. In fact, central to As You Like It is a celebration of conflict, contrast, and contradiction. The trappings of courtly life are pitted against the peaceful simplicity of the pastoral; the ideals of romantic love and courtship stand starkly removed from the realities of marriage. As You Like It contains many moments of family feuding, as the play opens with a double usurpation. After Sir Rowland DeBois dies, his estate was bequeathed to his eldest son, Oliver, as was the custom of the day. Oliver's selfish refusal to treat his younger brother Orlando with the respect he deserves causes much strife within the family...
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