I absolutely thought that 'As You Like It' was one of the Shakespeare plays I'd never bothered to get around to. But, as I started to read it, hints of familiarity came flooding back and I realised that one of my favourite Shakespeare quotes (and what I named this whole blog after) came from this play!
'As You Like it' is one of Shakespeare's comedies, attributed to his mid-career in terms of the time frame of his plays. It follows the story of Rosalind, whose father is exiled by her uncle and ultimately is exiled by her uncle. Orlando, exiled by his own brother, meets Rosalind and her cousin Celia who are now living in a forest. Rosalind is disguised as a man, Ganymede, to protect her and Celia. When 'Ganymede' meets Orlando, he learns of his love for Rosalind.
The whole play, as with many of his comedies is all about disguise and misunderstandings. Rosalind was played by a boy pretending to be a girl pretending to be a man who then pretends to be a woman to faux-woo Orlando. A woman falls in love with 'Ganymede' who does not really exist, whilst Orlando is in love with Rosalind but does not know Ganymede and Rosalind are the same person.
It's not one of my favourite plays, but is a great one of the comedies, so I'm giving this 4 out of 5 stars.
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