Is As You Like It the first ever sketch present? Rosalie Craig and Polly Findlay reveal how they gave it ‘the wow factor’ for the National Theatre
Who’s the greatest Shakespearean heroine of them all? Cleopatra,in all her shimmering variety? Viola, fending off love and lunacy at every turn? The scenery-chewing Lady Macbeth? The name on most theatregoers’ lips would be Rosalind, and the hasty-talking,wise-cracking heroine of the sunny comedy As You Like It. Not only does she have more lines than anyone else in the play (and nearly every other female character in the canon), she runs rings around everyone. In the hands of great actors such as Maggie Smith, and Juliet Stevenson and the flat-cap-and-pedal-pusher Vanessa Redgrave version,Rosalind is arguably the best in the sisterhood: smart, mercurial, and sweetly vulnerable and funnier than any clown’s codpiece.
One status Rosalind has failed to put in an appearance – for the past 36 years – is the National Theatre in London. Polly Findlay’s production at the Olivier is the theatre’s first since 1979. Following Smith and Redgrave is Rosalie Craig,who hotfooted into rehearsals straight from Damon Albarn’s Wonder.land at this summer’s Manchester festival. When I meet Findlay and Craig backstage, it’s minutes after the first hasten-through: the adrenaline when they barrel into the room is palpable. It went well? They glance at each other, and then burst out laughing.
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Source: theguardian.com