As We Like It

As We Like It

• Oct. 9, 7:30 at The Filling Station (live music 6:30)
• Oct. 12, 2:00 at MoCA Arlington

As We Like It follows the story of a woman named Rose, who tries to motivate her family to rehearse in the serenity and privacy of the woods a production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It to be performed at the wedding of the Duke and his betrothed, the Fairy Queen. The only problem is there is no Fairy Queen. There is no Duke. They are not in a serene forest. This Midsummer Night’s / As You Like It delusion is Rose’s shield against a brutal reality she doesn’t wish to confront — she and her family are in hiding from the Nazis in the grim forests of Poland during World War 2. Her family is not sure how to snap Rose out of her psychosis and worry of the danger she puts them all in by not acknowledging the realities and dangers of the world around them.

 

This play probes the isolating effects of living inside self-made echo chambers and how insulation from reality and contrary views can either shield or destroy. At its heart, this play asks: How do we tell the noble lies from the dangerous ones? When does hiding behind a story help or risk everything? And are we willing to sacrifice truth for a fiction whose purpose is simply to make the world… As We Like It?

 

 

About Oded Gross

Oded Gross is an award-winning playwright whose been produced throughout the United States, most notably at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, The Great Lakes Theater, and The Theatre at Boston Court. His work has garnered numerous Critics Picks and nominations including Best Adaptation by LA Weekly, Backstage West and LA Stage Times for The Government Inspector and LA Weekly’s Critics “Pick Of The Week” for his one act The Comedy of Romeo and Juliet. His original play Stain won at Scripp’s Ranch Theatre’s Out on a Limb Festival, voted BEST PLAY at the St. Paul’s Arts Council’s Festival of New Plays and selected as an AUDIENCE FAVORITE for the Center for Performing Arts Stage It-10 Minute Play Festival. His play GhostWriter won first place at the WordWave Festival of Story. He received his degree in drama from Brandeis University and his master’s in playwriting at Columbia University.

Production Team

Director: Tracey Erbacher
Festival Stage Manager: Toni Goldberg