Kicking off the Grand Theatre’s 2024/25 Season—in groovy style—is William Shakespeare’s As You Like It infused with the music of The Beatles. The magical, mystery mash-up plays October 15 to November 2 on the Grand’s historic Spriet Stage.

“I can’t think of a more natural fit than Shakespeare and The Beatles,” says Grand Theatre Artistic Director, Rachel Peake. “Both innovative artists, whose works have stood the test of time and continue to resonate across generations, [Shakespeare and The Beatles] are revealed to us in an exciting new light with As You Like It.”

The production, co-adapted by Daryl Cloran and Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival (Vancouver), is Shakespeare’s 400-year-old comedy, re-set in the 1960s Okanagan Valley, with large sections of the original prose replaced by the music of The Fab Four. For good measure, audience members who arrive early will enjoy 20-minutes of pre-show entertainment from their seats, in the form of a WWE-style wrestling match.

“Often in musicals, you talk about actors being ‘triple-threats’, meaning they can sing, dance, and act,” explains Director and Co-Adaptor, Daryl Cloran. “In As You Like It, we need quadruple, and sometimes quintuple threats, because not only do they have to be great at Shakespeare, great singers, musicians, and great dancers, but a number of them have to be great wrestlers as well. The virtuosity on display by these actors is amazing.”

The story of As You Like It stays true to Shakespeare’s original plot and prose, while infusing many details evocative of the vibrant escapism of the hippie generation. Banished from court, and newly disguised, protagonist Rosalind escapes into the forest for a groovy, pastoral adventure. There, she runs into her love Orlando (whose loyalty she works to test). As the couple navigates the long and winding road, with a price on their heads, colourful characters in their midst, mistaken identities to navigate, and a scheming businesswoman on their tails, it becomes clear that love may not be “all you need.”

The Grand Theatre production of As You Like It marks the ninth run of this Canadian-made mash-up. Beginning in 2018 with the first of two runs at Bard on the Beach (to an audience of 60,000 patrons, marking the company’s most successful run in their history),

As You Like It went on to play at The Citadel Theatre (Edmonton), the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, the Shakespeare Theatre Company (Washington, D.C.), and Theatre Calgary.

The creative team helming the Eastern Canada premiere in London, Ontario are: Daryl Cloran (Adaptor/Director), Ben Elliott (Music Director/Supervisor), Jonathan Hawley Purvis (Choreographer/Fight Director), Pam Johnson (Set Designer), Carmen Alatorre (Costume Designer), Hina Nishioka (Lighting Designer, original Lighting Design by Gerald King), and Owen Hutchison (Sound Designer, original Sound Design by Peter McBoyle).

Grand audiences will be treated to the multi-talents of an ensemble cast consisting of company members both original to, and new to this production of As You Like It. Local audiences will recognize familiar faces, Jan Alexandra Smith (Grand Ghosts, Mary Poppins, Mamma Mia!, Vigilante, A Christmas Carol, 2018, and others, as well as Tyler Check (Million Dollar Quartet).

AS YOU LIKE IT

By William Shakespeare

Adapted and Directed by Daryl Cloran

Conceived by Daryl Cloran and Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival

OCT 15 to NOV 2

As You Like It plays on the Spriet Stage from October 15 to November 2, 2024. Single tickets range from $24-$96, and are available at www.grandtheatre.com, by phone at 519.672.8800, or at the Box Office, 471 Richmond Street. There is a Canada Life Pay-What-You-Can performance on Sunday, October 20 at 2:00 p.m. (Pay-What-You-Can tickets become available online at midnight on the day of the performance, with a selection of tickets held for in-person purchase one hour prior to the performance at the Grand Theatre Box Office). There is an Open Caption performance on Saturday, October 26, 2024 at 2:00 p.m.