It is not uncommon for directors, both film and theater alike, to perform a Shakespeare play in modern or non-Elizabethan settings with atypical casting choices, and the comedy As You Like It is no exception. Looking through twenty-first century adaptions of As You Like It, I noticed an interesting commonality between two recent film versions of the play (Kenneth Branagh’s 2006 production and Marika Sonja Cotter’s 2012 version titled LOVE: As You Like It): the De Boys characters were played by black men. In a world where interracial couples have been an entertainment taboo for the majority of the last century (particularly when the couple features a black man and white woman), I was struck by this display. I started to wonder what the implications of a casting choice like this might be. Does the casting of actors of color in leading roles change the performance of a Shakespeare play in any way?
Kenneth Branagh’s 2006 adaption has “interracial relationships” as one of the tags on IMDB
While interracial casting may not necessarily have an effect on the plot itself, it can definitely change the way audience members view and react to the play. In his 1996 book Mad About Theatre, Richard Hornby cites contemporary instances in which critics disapprove of productions that cast black actors in roles traditionally held by white actors and vice versa. “From a director’s point of view,” Hornby writes, “the ideal is to cast someone as close to the character being portrayed as possible.” Since Shakespeare characters tend to be white, or whitewashed, then logic dictates that actors playing the roles should be white as well. When the actors play characters that are “distant” from themselves, the audience at the very least is going to notice. Using a contemporary production of As You Like It which featured a black woman as Rosalind, Hornby points out the ridiculousness of Oliver referring to the white Celia as being “browner than her brother” (who is Rosalind in disguise) as a prime example of logistic issues when changing the race of characters in a play (4.3.87). Originally meant to reference Celia’s transformation into the “foreign” Aliena, the line in context of that particular production only jarred audiences and removed them from intentional absurdity of the play.
But what if Celia herself was played by a nonwhite actress? University of California professor Jannal Segal would likely celebrate this choice. In her 2008 analysis, Segal emphasizes Oliver falling in love with Celia when she is disguised as Aliena. She argues that the brownness of Aliena challenges the idea of true love as pure notion within As You Like It. As the play earlier likens true love to a “pale complexion” (while Celia is onstage dressed as Aliena no less), the very existence of a non-pale character as a love interest, even if it is temporary, opposes the predetermined definition of true love (3.4.49). Of course this “issue” is remedied by the play’s end because Celia is actually of a fair complexion… originally. However, this is not the case if
Actress Michelle Beck portrays Celia in a 2010 production.
Celia is played by a nonwhite actress as she was in a 2010 Brooklyn Academy of Music production of the play. In this case, the pro-white “solution” is completely eliminated, leaving the original undermining of true love. This provides a very interesting lens in which to view the play, particularly the scenes where Cecilia is disguised as Aliena.
With this in mind, having black men portray Orlando and Oliver in an otherwise white cast in the aforementioned films must strike a nerve in viewers, even if it is unintentional. It certainly did for me, initially. However, this is something I could find very little analysis on. It seems there is an inherent unwillingness to address race in a play unless the race of the character is specifically brought up by the play itself, as it is with Celia/Aliena. This does not mean that there is nothing to say about nonwhite casting choices. Viewing an American-produced version of the play in which the physically aggressive yet intentionally uneducated Orlando interacts with the fair white Rosalind who can only truly approach him disguised as a white male certainly begs analysis. This not only breathes new life into the social commentary of Shakespeare’s play, but it opens a new space for a much needed discussion on race in theater and film.
Citations:
Hornby, Richard. Mad About Theatre. New York: Applause Books, 1996. Print.
Segal, Janna. “‘And browner than her brother’: ‘Misprized’ Celia’s racial identity and transversality in As You Like It.” Shakespeare 4.1 (2008): 1-21. Taylor and Francis Online. Web. 28 July 2015. <http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17450910801902734>.
Shakespeare, William. “As You Like It.” The Complete Pelican Shakespeare. Eds. Stephen Orgel, and A R. Braunmuller. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2002. 407-437. Print.