Last week I spoke to Anica Boulanger-Mashberg director of this year’s Shakespeare In The Gardens production of ‘As You Like It’. The play is well suited to a garden environment being mainly played out in the Forest of Arden where Arden-t lovers arrive to woo and win their loves.
Anica is a talent soon to be lost to Tasmania as she relocates to Brisbane with her theatre expertise, degree in performing arts from the school of performing arts in Launceston and a degree in psychology.
Anica has an excellent and memorable name for an actor/director and tells me it is of French (Boulanger) and Russian Jewish (Mashberg) (way back) origin. It’s an exotic name but also a bit of a bother when it comes to continuously having to spell it out!
Anica actually starred as shepherdess Phoebe in a previous production of ‘As You Like It’ and is glad to revisit as a director this time.
Which has both benefits and drawbacks, the benefits especially from someone who is an actor, is the panoramic view it allows you to have of the characters and as an actor herself Anica is generous in her encouragement of the actors to question and interpret the text, and is happy to take some of their ideas on board. Anica believes in a production being a collaboration between the actors and director.
The advertisement for ‘As You Like It’ features a carousel and it seems appropriate in that the characters are involved in a metaphorical merry-go-round with the ups and downs of their relationships the reference to a merry-go-round is also appropriate with the actual physical fixture of the carousel in residence at The Royal Botanical Gardens. Although the carousel is not utilised in the production, it provides a beautiful close by prop, fitting in nicely with the circus and playful theme of this production. With recent discussions about the possibility of the carousel leaving the gardens it’s hoped that its relevance to the community will see it remain at the Botanical gardens in the future.
‘As You Like It’ is not without controversy in being considered one of Shakespeare’s lesser known and admired plays, partly because the loose ends and arguments seem to be so neatly resolved.
However, this is also the play where Shakespeare writes one of his most quoted phrases
‘All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts’
Indeed in this play, like in other Shakespeare plays some characters do have more than one character to play.
Anica has taken part in 5 previous Botanic Garden productions , the ‘As You Like It’ (the first) as actor and ‘Loves Labour Lost’, ‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘The Comedy of Errors’.
Although playing in the gardens is an exciting experience it can be taxing for actors and directors because unlike a conventional stage play, working in the gardens environment means being tired in traversing distances and logistically working over a large area. Actors also need to be vocally strong so as to be heard from further a field.
This production has some unique features apart from the carousel, with Tasmanian’s own Monique Brumby writing original music.
I ask Anica if, like so many directors, does she reach an epiphany during the rehearsal process when everything seems to fall into place. Anica says that she doesn’t feel that epiphany and keeps working on things right up to opening night and beyond!
The play opens on Friday, 8 February and soon after Anica makes her move to Brisbane. I think on behalf of all theatre loves we wish her well and hope she carousels her way back to Tasmania from time to time.
‘As You Like It’ plays at the Royal Botanic Gardens from February 8 to March 2 at 7pm.
Paula Xiberras
