As You Like It at Shakespeare's Globe. Photo by Fiona Moorhead

Clever and creative production boasts some brilliant performances

As You Like It at Shakespeare's Globe. Photo by Fiona Moorhead

»It is not often girls have the chance to steal the show in a Shakespeare play.

They are rather hampered by the fact Shakespeare did not write many roles for women.

Not that the blame can be laid at the feet of the Bard himself: women were not allowed on the stage.

Yet the Globe’s touring production of As You Like It, back in the famous theatre after a summer travelling across Europe, is very much a vehicle for the girls, who manage to steal every scene they appear in.

Deidre Mullins (Rosalind) and Beth Park (Celia) are an amazing comedy duo, while Emma Pallent (who took the roles of both Phebe and the usually-male Jaques) had the audience eating out of her hands with the (melancholic) raise of an eyebrow.

Indeed, they are so good they put the boys in the shade, who, with the exception of Will Mannering (Touchstone/Adam), who was quite brilliant, struggle to make their mark in this cleverly put together production.

Much like the Globe’s touring production of Hamlet which thrilled audience’s last summer, a lot of thought has gone into the production as a whole.

After all, it takes a lot of creativity to create the court and forest with just eight actors, a large box and a few ladders.

* As You Like It is at Shakespeare’s Globe, New Globe Walk, SE1, until September 16. Box office 020 7401 9919.