Laurence Olivier's "As You Like It"

Olivier's production of As You Like It was well done and fun to watch, although the film quality is grainy, since the film was released in 1936. This play deals with elements of cross-dressing, gender roles, and romantic trickery, and was interesting to see how these themes were portrayed in the 1930's in comparison to what would be acceptable today. For example, the scenes where Rosalind is pretending to be a boy named "Ganymede" (who is Zeus' gay cup-bearer in Greek mythology, although that's not explained in the play) and convinces Orlando to "practice" wooing her (him?) in Rosalind's name (since Orlando doesn't know she's really Rosalind herself, not Ganymede) are shown as being relatively innocent, although highly flirtatious to the point that a modern audience would wonder why Orlando doesn't seem to react much to Ganymede's intense "practices". I think the actors would have to perform this scene with more political sensitivity, as well as humor, today in order for it to be successful. I saw a Grassroots Theater production of this play, and they definitely played up the modern humor that these scenes invite. They also portrayed women with a much more modern angle, rather than the soft, helpless, "angelic" women of the 1930's version.



I also thought it interesting that Rosalind and Celia's costumes not only function as physical disguises (although Rosalind always looks like a woman, even when she's a man) but were reflective of complete personality transformations as well, to the point that I wondered which had been the real disguise: the demure, delicate, highly-feminized castle princesses, or the feisty, independent, tomboyish backwoods girls?

Here are clips of both versions, so you can see the huge contrast:
Castle Princesses vs. Backwoods Girls

But, interestingly, when they get married and switch back to "princess" mode, they keep a little more of that "backwoods" toughness than they had before. I thought this production was a  good commentary on 1930's values and perceptions, as well as a fun enactment of Shakespeare's play.