“The project is definitely aimed at a younger, progressive crowd and will most probably anger a specific portion of theatregoers. It’s an interesting spin on a beloved story and, while the execution is a bit wobbly here and there, we can see the vision behind it.”
Read more

“Director Ellen McDougall’s inclusive take on ‘As You Like It’ has a sort of ramshackle innocence and openness to it. The casting is gender neutral and the context is fluid...It all makes for a deeply uneven production; a sense which is only heightened by the largely distracting interpolations of modern text and a series of faltering musical interludes. They are embellishments too far, in a show that starts with gusto but eventually fizzles out, undone by its own invention.”
Read more

"This is a fun, modern and tongue-in-cheek reading of 'As You Like It' – and a good argument for its continued reinterpretation. "
Read more

“There is a clear separation in Ellen McDougall’s new ‘As You Like It’ at Shakespeare’s Globe – the stuffy and conformist world of the Duke’s Court, and the inclusive and embracing world of the Forest of Arden. A very distinctly single-minded desire seems to ensure that diversity is the watchword for this, already most gender-flipped of Shakespeare’s works, and in the main, it works well.”
Read more

“It’s fun! Lots of fun! ‘As You Like It’ is a play that can leave audiences lost in the woods if it’s not done right, but I emerged from these forests with a veritable bounce in my step.”
Read more

“Director Ellen McDougall’s production of Shakespeare’s pastoral romance brings a much-needed infusion of warmth to this lacklustre summer...The Globe’s now-habitual gender-fluid approach to casting chimes perfectly with this story of disguise and confusion: we might be experiencing the same kind of mind-expanding uncertainty Shakespeare’s original audience felt.”
Read more

“Right from the first moments of her production of Shakespeare’s pastoral rom-com it’s clear that Ellen McDougall is out to do things differently...this ‘As You Like It’ has a purposeful sense of fun that gets the job done.”
Read more

“It’s no revelation that fluidity around gender and sexuality is a prominent feature of Shakespeare’s comedies. So this production by Ellen McDougall, in overtly queering his tale of pastoral romance in the Forest of Arden, playfully tickles the text rather than radically subverting it...Tripping by, this is a staging that never quite clutches the heart; but it’s a beguiling late-summer fling.”
Read more