As You Like It: trickster Cliff Cardinal hijacks Shakespeare
02 Oct 2021

by Drew Rowsome - photos by Dahlia Katz

For I am falser than vows made in wine (Rosalind, Act 3 Scene 5)

Over the centuries, Shakespeare's plays have proven to be very malleable. They have been adapted to mediums from dance to sitcoms, been cross-gender cast, been re-tooled for directorial agendas, and been designed in settings from historically accurate to contemporary to utterly fanciful from circuses to outer space. The entire canon has been re-tooled, rearranged, deconstructed and gleefully mutilated. But I doubt that any production has been as completely hijacked as has this version of As You Like It currently playing at Streetcar Crowsnest.

And thereby hangs a tale (Jaques, Act 2, Scene 7)

Ay, there's the rub, as an audience we were sworn to secrecy - and my copious notes of juicy lines and clever ideas were rendered useless - about just how far from the sacred text that playwright Cliff Cardinal dares to go. And it is daring. Daring and viciously funny in a way that is distinctly uncomfortable. Deep belly laughs that get caught in one's throat even as they are emitted. And lots of gasps where one marvels at the nerve, shocked and delightedly wondering 'was that that actually said aloud?'

Well said, that was laid on with a trowel (Celia, Act 1 Scene 2)

Cardinal is not remotely concerned with As You Like It's themes, he has something far more urgent in mind. He does however have a lot to get off his chest and isn't afraid to put it on stage. Cardinal is furious about racial and social equality, the Indigenous genocide, the destruction of the environment, things we all are frettingly concerned about. Most theatre audiences are composed of comfortably white and middle-to-upper class allies who espouse all those causes, and Cardinal brazenly excoriates that state of denial. It is a good thing that the cast is possessed of an abundance of charm and guile, alternately seducing and then bitch slapping. Often sliding into stand-up comedy with a nefarious, delirious purpose.

Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly Amiens, Act 2, Scene 7)

While the evening often suffers from a slightly ramshackle, stream of consciousness structure, the final effect is devastating. Even a brief parody of well-meaning plays that strives to show the suffering of the Indigenous that falls apart under its own weight makes a vital point. It is no longer 1623, it is 2021 and high time to face our own culpability and deal with it. And Cardinal is overjoyed with this chance to show us how.

O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes! (Orlando, Act 5 Scene 2)

Cardinal is a trickster and makes no apologies for it. And though the evening is as uncomfortable as it is hilarious - I often found myself squirming but unsure if it was because I was laughing or feeling indicted - it is an experience that justifies the trickery. As You Like It comes complete with trauma counsellors on hand afterwards for those who didn't have as positive a reaction as most. Or those for whom the cast speaks, those who know what real trauma, not just the acknowledgement of another's, is.

The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool Touchstone (Act 5, Scene 1)

All the world's a stage (Jaques, Act 2 Scene 7)