A modern adaptation of William Shakespeare's "As you like it", suitable for theatre or a film, with songs by Joss Stone.
For an adaptation of "As You Like It", I would set the play as a film containing both elements of historical drama and fantasy. Dialogues are adapted to modern language and a few scenes need to be switched to make the film comprehensible and interesting to watch.
For an adaptation of As You Like It, I would set the play as a film containing both elements of historical drama and fantasy. Dialogues are adapted to modern language and a few scenes need to be switched to make the film comprehensible and interesting to watch.
Scene 1 is performed in a medieval court setting with historical costumes. Rosalind gets banished, Celia decides to join her, and Touchstone follows them, too. So far, the only difference is that the three of them will have to cross the sea in order to get to the Forest of Arden. Consequently, when Rosalind (in disguise), Celia (dressed as a poor lady) and Touchstone leave the Duke’s court, they enter a boat soon after their departure. The weather is bright and sunny, and they enjoy watching the dolphins that accompany their boat on its way. However, soon a typhoon-like storm comes up. They fight to keep the boat under control – in vain. The storm quickly capsizes the boat and a huge maelstrom absorbs everyone.
The next scene starts in subaqueous surroundings, with the Forest of Arden being a kelp forest, and eye-catching coral reefs full of marine animals and plants (dolphins, turtles, all sorts of fish, sea anemones, starfish, sea urchins, nautilus, sea horses, stingrays, jellyfish, seashells, crabs, sponges…) in an amazingly animate and vividly colourful world of its own; all surrounded by clear turquoise water. Confused, the three travellers do not understand where they are and how they got there. As a result of being scared by Touchstone, a squid empties some ink into the water as it swims by.
The following scenes feature Duke Frederick’s conversation with the lords at his court, and the dialogue between Orlando and Adam.
After that, the action gets back to Rosalind, Celia and Touchstone, who still express their disbelief. Suddenly, Rosalind has an insight and tells her companions that “This is the Forest of Arden”. Stingrays pass in the background. Corin and Silvius, two “shepherds”, approach the three protagonists and they start talking. Those subaqueous shepherds herd masses of shining, transparent (non-poisonous) jellyfish that seclude a liquid suitable for drinking and cooking.
Now – in another scene - Duke Senior, Amiens and the lords appear in another undersea kelp forest setting, talking to each other. Orlando and Adam join them in this scene.
The further course of action takes place either at land (court) or undersea (Kelp Forest of Arden). As long as the actors are underwater, they were costumes that look like they were either made in a fishing net-like manner in dark blue (men) or from woven seagrass in a greenish shade (women). Besides, the women wear earrings and necklaces made from seashells. Pleasant reflections of light play a significant role and appear everywhere in the Kelp Forest of Arden. When Rosalind and Orlando walk through the kelp forest, they wander along a huge coral reef. Rosalind wears clothes that hint at a fishing net, not tight-fitting and therefore not giving her gender away. Various fish shoals swim by and circle around them all the time. Instead of houses, hidden caves in the sea provide shelter.
When Orlando rescues Oliver, the threat is not a lioness but a shark whom he fights off with a wooden stick. To his help, a shoal of jellyfish appears – the highly poisonous Portuguese-man-of-war.
Musical instruments shown in the film are flutes, harps and nautilus-shaped wind instruments. For the soundtrack, I would rather choose modern songs by Joss Stone / James Morrison. Music playing in the background is “I say a little prayer” when Celia makes it clear she will not let Rosalind leave court alone; “Midnight train to Georgia” while they are on the boat; “Tell me what we’re gonna do now” as Orlando and Rosalind (disguised) walk by the reefs; “A natural woman” when Oliver and Celia fall in love; “Right to be wrong” when they hear of Duke Frederick’s retreat; and “My love goes on” at the end of the film (after Rosalind’s epilogue, still undersea).
All in all, the film is a mix of a few historical elements and many fantasy sequences. Most of the film is set under water. I have chosen this setting in order to make the film more appealing to younger people and even children, while deliberately avoiding the mermaid image. Therefore, my protagonists walk under water on ways that resemble small country ways. Occasionally, the protagonists ride oversize sea horses. At night, bioluminescent sea dwellers illuminate their undersea surroundings, mainly plankton and neon squids. In order to create a fascinating scenery, I have mixed elements of tropical seas and cooler waters. The rules of gravity are plainly ignored in my film as there is no upwelling of people in the water, not to mention that I enabled them to breathe underwater. So, not all scientific facts have been obeyed, which is attributed to the many fantasy elements of the film.
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- Romy Zhang (Author), 2020, An adaptation of William Shakespeare's "As you like it", Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1588070
