For the characters Duke Fredrick and Duke Senior, they will both wear black suits with a white shirt and silver tie. However, Duke Seniors’ will looks a lot more run down and ragged compared to Duke Fredrick, as he will be in the field. The courtiers for both Dukes and attendants to Duke Senior will wear black tuxedos and will have waistcoats and bow ties. As before, the banished courtiers and attendants, will wear the same things, but look a lot more ragged. Charles, the wrestler, will have a very comical costume. He will be wearing a pink spandex leotard. For Adam, as he is getting old, and is not that well off, he will wear a simple white shirt and jeans. Touchstone will look like a clown, with a jester’s hat. I wanted all the people from the courtside to have clothes that make them look as if they had some authority, whether or not they were banished.
When in the field, the characters who are originally from there i.e. Audrey, William, Phebe and Silvius, will be following the hippie motif. Therefore, the men and the women will both wear ludicrously loud flowery shirts. Men will wear huge, baggy, light blue jeans. Women will wear huge, denim skirts. Both sexes hair will be long. All the people that go from the court to the country will have their footwear suitably adjusted upon arrival in the field. They will wear Nike Tn’s. These are a popular brand of sports footwear. For Rosalind, Celia, Orlando and Oliver, attire will slightly adjust. Orlando’s and Oliver’s previously dark blue jeans will become light, and have holes. Shoes will be as above and ties will have changed colour to blue and white. Hair will remain the same. For Celia her black skirt will shorten to just above the knees and ties will change to pink and white and her shoes will be Nike Tn’s. As Rosalind will turn into a boy, her attire will change to what Orlando and Oliver will be wearing. However, to avoid too much confusion, her hair will remain long. I thought it might be helpful to the audience to change the clothing of the characters from the court to the country, especially if the setting does not help, the costumes may be a helpful give-away.
The setting I found very hard to change. Therefore, I only made minor changes to it. Finally, I settled on three suitable places. The usurping court will be set next to the sea. I will be a huge beachside mansion, with a private beach! The mansion will be picturesque with honeysuckle crawling all over it. It will have huge windows and balconies. It will be beautiful place, it will scream tranquillity. The set on stage for these parts will be quite extravagant. When in a room there will be a backdrop of a huge fireplace, and it will have a huge mantelpiece above it, with a picture of Duke Fredrick above it. If on the off chance the characters are outside, there will be a set in the form of either a beautiful sky sunset with the sea, or a front view of the mansion. The first scene of the play which is set in Oliver’s house, will remain a house but will be simple. It will just be a humble room with a backdrop of a window. Through this window, you will be able to see farmland and animals. The field will be a huge meadow with swaying grass, and many trees surrounding it. So I thought a good set would be it a large picture of grass at the back of the stage, and next to the wings of the stage a few large painted oak trees. I found it very hard to conform the places the play would be set in, into modern times.
I decided on setting the play in modern times as I felt that people our age would feel more like watching it if it was set nowadays. Also in this play social status plays quite a major part, so by setting it in the modern times, it might help people see that even in these modern times, social status still does matter. However, despite the fact that this play will be set in the modern times, I am going to make status a point. I myself have distinguished between the court and the country. The people of the court have decent clothes, like Duke Fredrick and the courtiers, are all wearing good clothes. Whereas, characters like Phebe and Silvius are all wearing clothes that people nowadays would laugh at if they were seen in public. But, the people who do not do very flattering jobs for the court are still wearing clothes that do make people look down on them. Touchstone for example, is part of the Court, but works for them, not giving him as much status. In films today it is strange to not see a female in it, so this might appeal more to the audience to see something as rare as this.
Rosalind has a very tough time. Hearing the news about Orlando being injured pushed her over the edge, causing her to faint. She had many things on her plate for example, she is in love with Orlando, and he professes his love for her, unaware that Ganymede is her. On top of all of this, a girl called Phebe likes her. Rosalind cannot do anything about it, as she is a girl. But, when Silvius brings her a letter from Phebe, it gets more complicated. The letter states that Phebe is in fact in love with Ganymede. It really starts to pile up. Therefore, I want to make the Act IV scene iii where she faints, whimsical.
As I said before, I want my portrayal of this play to be comical. Therefore, to convey the comedy, I am going to make Act IV Scene iii to be acted exaggeratedly. An example of how I am going to do this is Celia. Celia likes Oliver; therefore, I am going to make Celia be blatant about the fact she finds him attractive. I want facial expressions to play a major part in the acting of the play. This is because it is a lot more enjoyable to watch this way. I also want Oliver to act out the events of what happened to him and Orlando using gestures. This, again, is all for the humour. I also want Rosalind to make it obvious that she is very anxious about the fate of Orlando, by facial expressions and by biting her nails, wringing her hands, all the signs of nerves. I want Oliver to acknowledge the fact that Celia likes him, but in turn, edge away from her when she is too full on about it.
Due to the fact that things like costumes and acting is quite complicated in this play the way I have done it. I have decided to make the background noises very forest like, although they are not in the forest. The music will be things like birds chirping in the background, crickets making their unique sound. I have decided this, as I do not want the audience to be distracted by the music too much. I want them to be aware that it is there, but still be focussed on the gestures and expressions of the characters. Oliver enters. He recognises Ganymede and Aliena, due to the description that Orlando gave him. When he enters on the stage, the spotlight will be on him and Celia. There are two reasons for this – the first is, we know who he is, but the girls do not. The second reason is that Celia likes him, so to make the play funnier I want the spotlight to capture her reactions, her facial expressions, and the small things that she will do to show that she likes him. Rosalind will remain with no light on her. When the bloody napkin is brandished, the spotlight will be taken off Celia and onto Rosalind. This again is so that we can capture Rosalind’s reaction at the news that her beloved is hurt. Rosalind will have now assume an downcast face. When Oliver is retelling the story, there will be a normal spotlight on Rosalind and Celia, but there will also be a spotlight on Oliver. This spotlight however will be different, I will be of a different colour, and will give the impression that we are there watching it although there is only one person telling it. When he is telling the story, his arms in effect will be doing most of the talking. He will enact all the moves that Orlando pulled on the lion. During this, you will hear Rosalind making gasping noises indicating that she is scared about the fate of her lovers’ life. When Celia badmouths Oliver unaware that he is Oliver there will be moment of tension and again the spotlight will shift onto Celia and Oliver. This is because I want to draw attention to Oliver’s face when this is said. When it has been said I want his face to show remorse, show that he is truly upset for what he has done. Whereas, Celia’s face will remain unchanged. Oliver continues to enact the story when it dawns on the girls who he really is. The spotlight will now be on all three of them. It will show the girls faces being shocked and amazed and looking slightly abashed that they said what they did about them. Oliver’s face will be the same as before. The Oliver makes his revelation that the two brothers have reunited and have made the peace. This will be welcomed by a look of relief from the girls and a smile from Oliver. At this point, the spotlight will be on all three of them. After this, Rosalind faints, so I thought so that all the characters emotions are captured, the spotlight will be on all three of them. When Rosalind claims she was faking it all, I want the spotlight to be only on Oliver and Rosalind. On Oliver, so it conveys how he is now weary of Rosalind, due to his fainting, this makes her seem feminine. On Rosalind, so she can pinch her cheeks and flap her arms, to enable some colour to come to her face. That is the end of the scene, so as the characters leave the spotlights will be on all of them.
Accents in this play will convey quite a lot about the characters. People like Rosalind and Celia will speak with a very precise and posh accent, pronouncing all the letters correctly. This also applies to Orlando, Oliver, and all the people from the court. Whereas people like Silvius, Corin, Phebe etc will all assume a Birmingham accent, which is very heavy. Again, status is an issue. The higher the status the more posh the accent, lower the status, the more common the accent. Another way status comes into it, is that the servants and workers will wear less flattering cloths. Adam, Touchstone etc will all again have the traditional “brummie” accent. Although these characters work, and live in the courtside, deep down, they are no more than mere servants.
Evidence of things like love in this play, is extremely overt. Firstly, you have Rosalind, she is in love, does not know how to express it. This will have a comical effect on the audience, especially if her inability to articulate her feelings causes her to be frustrated. Orlando, loves Rosalind, but is hiding in the forest. He expresses himself through a series of cheesy poems written about his love. This again, makes it funny for us, the audience. Phebe, is in love with Rosalind expresses it through a letter, but alas, she is a girl. The mistaken gender situation gives humour again. Silvius, in love with Phebe, cannot profess his love for her, due her loving Rosalind.
With betrayal, it is not as blatant as love, however it is still there. Duke Fredrik was disloyal to his own brother. He usurped the throne from him. With Orlando and Oliver, family loyalty is broken. Oliver has been disloyal, he promised his father he would take care of the family. Oliver betrayed his father by not doing what he promised. Jealousy comes into it – Orlando has to sleep in terrible conditions, has not got all the privileges are Jacques and Oliver. He is envious of them, they are also rivals, he wishes he could be them. However, in the end, Orlando and Oliver make peace, and everything is all right between them. This play goes through a range of emotions, which makes it very interesting and entertaining for us, the reader. The court versus country bit, is all around the play, it is associated in the costumes, where they live, how the talk, everything. However, in the play it is obvious as, as soon as Orlando reaches the forest, he assumes everyone there is savage.
