Love Amidst The Trees

So the pathway to love isn’t always pleasant; sometimes some real work is involved. Like cross-dressing. Or putting up with goofy companions. Suffering banishment, even.

Enter good ol’ William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, currently playing at the Center House Theatre and produced by the Seattle Shakespeare Company. (Your Hedonista recently attended this play as media). Directed by the company’s new Artistic Director, George Mount, this play is his first mainstage production since his new appointment last December. (Bravo, George!)

As You Like It is all about love, lust, greed, and folly. (Ah, how we love Bill the Bard.) Complete with 15 actors, a stunning forested set, and original music by Sarah McGuinn, this play will not disappoint. Hana Lass plays a very believable – not to mention sprite-like – Rosalind. And Nathan Graham Smith pulls off a love-besotted Orlando. (If only he’d be kinder to the trees in his “poetic” proclamations of love.) Even Darragh Kennan (recall Hamlet at the end of 2010), who plays the hilarious and rather lascivious court jester Touchstone, played it out with panache.

Of course, in the end, Rosalind vets, approves, and weds her Orlando and all is well in the Forest of Arden.

As You Like It – the last of the 2011-2012 Season – runs from May 30th to June 24th, 2012. Tickets range in price from $15 to $40, depending on the performance, with tickets available in the $20-$23 range for groups of 10 or more and tickets in the $15-$25 range for students and seniors.

However, with the end of the season comes the Wooden O’s outdoor summer plays. Specifically, Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and The Winter’s Tale, which will run July 12th through August 12th, 2012 in park venues throughout King County. Admission to these performances is free and open to the public (but donations will be accepted, of course).

And there’s always the upcoming 2012-2013 season, too, dear hedonists: Antony and Cleopatra, A Doll’s House, Love’s Labours Lost, and The Taming of the Shrew.

Note: In order to comply with FTC Act 16 C.F.R. 255, Heed the Hedonist would like to disclose that it does receive media “comps” and/or media discounts – but not in exchange for favorable coverage, or for withholding unfavorable coverage, of the given venue/meal/performance/product/service.