As She Likes It

by Penny Gay

As She Likes It is the first attempt to tackle head on the enduring question of how to perform those unruly women at the centre of Shakespeare's comedies.
Unique amongst both Shakespearian and feminist studies, As She Likes It asks how gender politics affects the production to the comedies, and how gender is represented, both in the text and on the stage. Penny Gay takes a fascinating look at the way Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It and Measure for Measure have been staged over the last half a century, when perceptions of gender roles have undergone massive changes. She also interrogates, rigorously but thoughtfully, the relationship between a male theatrical establishment and a burgeoning feminist approach to performance.
As illuminating for practitioners as it will be enjoyable and useful for students, As She Likes It will be critical reading for anyone interested in women's experience of theatre.

Genres: Shakespeare, Nonfiction, Drama, Plays, Gender

224 pages, Paperback

First published July 21, 1994

About the author

Penny Gay is Professor in English Literature and Drama at the University of Sydney. Her publications include Jane Austen and the Theatre; As She Likes It: Shakespeare’s Unruly Women; and The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare’s Comedies.

Reviews

[Ruby · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 I found this to be somewhat disappointing, as I thought it would be about the women in Shakespeare's comedy. The chapters are in part about those characters. However, they mainly focus on describing previous performances in quite some detail, throughout which there is no real emphasis on Rosalind, Beatrice etc. Orlando and Benedick are given quite as much space. Moreover, it is simply much more descriptive than analytical - but when Penny Gay does analyse some particular elements, she is usually spot on. Having said all that, it is an interesting book. It is really fascinating to read about all the different interpretations and to see how there was a general change in strategies throughout the years. So, on the whole, quite nice - except I don't really believe Gay ultimately achieves what she set out to do.

[Michael P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interviews with some great female actors on how they played some of Shakespeare most interesting women. The book, however, is not in an interview format, but built around the characters. The interviews are excerpted as they shed light on playing the parts. This is a brilliantly conceived book, and the execution can't be bettered.

[Aubrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the outset, you might think that, as the title suggests, this is going to be a book about "Shakespeare's Unruly Women," but that doesn't end up being the case. Instead, this is more of a theatrical history chronicling performances of five Shakespeare plays from the 1940s to the 1990s. While it is important to have a record of how these plays were performed and received, it wasn't what I thought the book's focus would be. Penny Gay does a great job of hammering home how societal trends impacted performances, but I was more interested in analysis rather than description, as some other reviews have also expressed. It started getting repetitive after a while. Bonus points for amazing takes on Taming of the Shrew!

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

A solid feminist performance history of RSC productions from ~1946-1991, focusing on the heroines of Twelfth Night, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, Measure for Measure, & Much Ado About Nothing.

[Pers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't find this book as interesting as I'd hoped to.