As You Like It

Downing College East Lodge Garden

Arden, 1970. All is not well at the court of Duke Frederick. Centering the bellowing beginnings of the gay liberation movement, audiences follow Rosalind, Celia and Orlando’s escape, alongside their trusty clown, Touchstone, to the Forest of Arden. As they acclimatise to their new environment and the unique, unfamiliar model of society it represents, we learn alongside them, aided by ‘tongues in trees, books in the running brooks’. Disguised as Ganymede, Rosalind, alongside their fellows, is enabled to choose family, to choose love, and to choose freeing expression: but at what cost? Shakespeare’s much-loved comedic classic, more relevant now than ever, shows at East Lodge Gardens, Downing College from Thursday 19th to Saturday 21st June 2025.