If theatre is about suspending disbelief, then As You Like It is the art form at its purest. Shakespeare asks us to accept that after his noble lovers Orlando and Rosalind are separated by cruel relatives, then reunited in the Forest of Arden, Orlando would not recognise his sweetheart, now dressed as a man. And that a local woman would then fall for cross-dressing Rosalind.
One can only marvel at the goodwill demanded of the play's early audiences, for whom Rosalind was a boy playing a woman in turn passing herself off as a man. Add in the sudden conversion to righteousness of the work's villains, which brings to an end the lovers' rustication and enables them and a surrounding pack of fiances to finally marry, and this romantic comedy easily turns to farce.
So there is a heavy burden on the central character of Rosalind and her satellites Orlando and Celia (her cousin and companion). Director Gregory Doran adds to this at the Barbican by removing some of the frippery that irritated critics when this production opened in Stratford. The Pit's treeless forest - grey stage bordered by white walls, a few scattered cushions - now contains few distractions other than the opulent costumes. The play will work only if the upper-class trannie and her retinue can fill this bare space, if we find her both charming in her own self and amusing as an impostor.
Doran is blessed in Alexandra Gilbreath, his husky-voiced Rosalind, never afraid of going over the top as first a smitten ninny, then a teasing minx. The whole psychology of the part is suspect - would a lovestruck woman really wait so long before revealing her identity? But Gilbreath's performance sweeps all objections before it. She gets fine support from Nancy Carroll as Celia, although Anthony Howell brings little colour to the insipid role of Orlando.
The rest of the production is less satisfying, as Shakespeare's gentle critique of the pastoral myth loses direction in a fog of Merry Men-style scenes and a number of flashy-trashy gimmicks, such as a dodgy priest's collapsible altar. More You'll Like Bits than As You Like It.
Until February 7. Box office: 020-7638 8891.
