To put it lightly, 'As You Like It' is not one of my favourite Shakespeare plays. Consider it one of his weakest actually. It's not the language and text that's the problem, Shakespeare's unrivalled mastery of language and text can be seen in even his lesser work. The problem is the too thin and absurd story with a silly and randomly introduced ending, just about kept afloat by Shakespeare's prose and nice characters.
Available productions/versions of 'As You Like It' have varied, didn't like the Laurence Olivier or Christine Edzard versions while finding a good deal to like about Kenneth Branagh's, Royal Shakespeare Company and the BBC Television Shakespeare productions and loving the very condensed animation version. Until my recent viewing of this 2010 Shakespeare Globe production, this reviewer had not seen a great production of 'As You Like It'. Until now, this viewer more than liked it and instead loved it.
Production values are both handsome and tasteful, with a good sense of period and the specific setting is the most convincing of all the productions seen. The forest setting is as enchanting as ought and personally had no problem with the camera work or video directing, which was intimate but not static. The music also fits perfectly, beautiful musical interludes that are true to the time period and not staged in an overblown way. The ending dance is both hugely entertaining and beautiful.
Had no issues either with the stage direction, which did a great job at making the story easy to follow and accessible, with the humour not being overdone or taking over the drama (remarkable considering how silly the story is), the silliness not going overboard and the heart of the play is not lost, instead the drama is very poignant. The ending is less random and absurd than usual, which is a good thing. There are no gratuitous or confusing touches here and there is a lot of energy.
Shakespeare's dialogue is a consistent poetic delight. The performances are wonderful all round, Naomi Frederick brings feisty spirit and charm to Rosalind and Jack Laskey is a dashing Orlando. Their chemistry is charming and surprisingly sensual. Tim McMullen has great comic timing while also being melancholic, an effective mix of feeling repulsion and pity for Jaques. Domic Rowan is at his most hilarious as Touchstone.
Concluding, absolutely loved it. 10/10.
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