PRINCIPAL CAST: Christopher Good (Jaques); Cate Hamer (Rosalind); Trilby James (Celia); Stephen Mangan (Orlando); Shaun Prendergast (Touchstone).

This production ran from 5 February - 8 March 1997.

"The basic all-white set is a sort of corporate foyer, where wicked Duke Frederick reigns. It has interesting curves and planes, and is deftly transformed by lighting, projections and the odd trapdoor into the snowy forest of Arden and old Corin's modern agricultural plant. The court villains wear business suits, and the forest exiles hippie gear - even the exiled Duke."

~ David Murray, "Down-to-earth fun in the forest", Financial Times, 20 February 1997

"David Poutney certainly goes the whole hog. His second excursion into straight drama is as radical as any of his work for the English National Opera in the Powerhouse years. But, while the production is packed with visual invention and wit, the performances are uneven and the text is treated as an addendum rather than the vehicle for Shakespeare's ideas....Poutney's admission that he gives the actors a loose structure rather than directing them 'in enormous detail' is all too clearly borne out in practice. Cate Hamer's Rosalind and Stephen Mangan's Orlando are all very well except their verbal language never matches the expressiveness of their body language. Even Christopher Good's intriguingly manic Jaques seems to be acting alongside the verse rather than through it."

~ Michael Billington, "Losing the text in wiles and wit", Guardian, 10 February 1997