Access to Art, a 17-year-old not for profit, that brings the visual and creative arts to Cape May County, brings Aquila Theatre Company, in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” to the Cape May region Nov. l4.
Aquila will perform at the 1,177 seat Paul W. Schmidtchen Theatre, 687 Route 9, at Lower Cape May Regional School at 7:30 p.m.
“As You Like It,” is in modern dress with modified language to make it more accessible to the audience. This year they opened the Shakespeare festival in L.A. to accolades and proceeded to Cincinnati, the South, New England, and parts interior.
In Shakespeare’s time, all actors were male, and with Shakespeare, in “As You Like It,” there is lots of identity switching with girls playing men, nobles playing peasants, courtiers becoming simple country wenches, and general disguises of sex, gender, class running rampant.
It’s all a running commentary on the sexes, on love, on political corruption, on redemption, and you may take it, as Shakespeare offered it, as you like it. Up to their waist in the bad behaviour of the nobility, the heros and heroines of “As You Like It” escape, like Robin Hood, to the forest primeval, where innocence and honesty prevail against the prevailing ill behaviours of those grappling for money and power in the courts and ruling their brothers with the cruelty born of primogeniture.
Meanwhile, Shakespeare utters the immortal words that “All the world’s a stage,” with men making their entrances and exits within the seven stages of life, according to Jacques, the resident melancholic who elaborates eloquently on the brevity of life.
It’s a comedy, so they don’t drink poison and die, but despite their human frailties, jealousies, greed, vengeance, hatred, etc., they manage to fall in love and become better for it.
Tickets are $25. and $30. and may be obtained online at www.accesstoart.org or by calling (609) 465-3963.
They are also available at the door an hour preceding the show on Nov. l4 from 6 p.m.
Patrons may send checks to Access to Art, Inc., 417 E. Pacific Ave., Cape May Court House, N.J., 08210.
Group rates are available for groups of ten or more. Student tickets are $l0.
Aquila is supported, in part, by a grant from the NJ State Council on the Arts, Department of State, administered by the Cape May County Cultural & Heritage Commission and the Cape May County Library.
They are also supported by the Delaware River & Bay Authority, and N.J. Travel & Tourism, Dept. of State.
Access to Art plans on presenting a Renaissance Festival with an emphasis on Shakespeare, l6th century music and dance, and representations of l6th century characters in the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.
That will be presented on Oct. 2nd and 3rd next year in the Cape May area.
For information on any of the above, call Access to Art at (609) 465-3963.
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