As You Like It
The second Public Acts production is a timeless story of chance encounters, featuring a community cast of over 100 members.
Booking and details
Queen's Theatre Hornchurch
Billet Lane, Hornchurch RM11 1QT
Following triumphant performances of Pericles at the National Theatre in summer 2018, the next Public Acts production, a musical adaptation of As You Like It, was performed at the Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch.
Forced from their homes, Orlando, Duke Senior, his daughter Rosalind and niece Celia, escape to the Forest of Arden, a fantastical place where all are welcomed and embraced. Lost amidst the trees, they find community and acceptance under the stars…
With a score ranging from calypso to pop, Broadway to soul, this UK premiere saw more than 100 community members, professional actors, and performance groups from across London, come together for a magical tale of faithful friends, feuding families and lovers in disguise.
Performed 24 — 27 August 2019 in the Queen's Theatre Hornchurch.
Partners
Public Acts is the National Theatre’s initiative to create extraordinary acts of theatre and community. Public Acts is inspired by Public Works, the Public Theater’s ground-breaking programme in New York.
Partners
Body & Soul, The Bromley by Bow Centre, Coram, DABD, Faith and Belief Forum, Havering Asian Social Welfare Association (HASWA), Open Age and Thames Reach.
Theatre Partner
Production team
Douglas Rintoul
Douglas is an award-winning theatre-maker and cultural leader.
Hayley Grindle
Hayley Grindle is an Associate Artist of the Sherman Theatre.
Paul Anderson
For the National Theatre: Mnemonic (2024), a co-production with Complicité, Hex, Small Island, Everyman, Small Family Business, A Taste of Honey, The Amen Corner, This House, Blood and Gifts, Nation, The Revenger’s Tragedy, A Minute Too Late, Stuff Happens, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Measure for Measure, Cyrano de Bergerac and The Birds
Leigh Davies
Leigh is a theatre and live event Sound Designer and Engineer based in the UK.
Yshani Perinpanayagam
Yshani Perinpanayagam is pianist of the Del Mar Piano Trio and Carismático Tango Band, and a regular guest broadcaster on BBC Radio 3.
Sundeep Saini
Sundeep Saini is a movement director and choreographer passionate about driving narrative through physicality.
Jules Tipton
Jules Tipton is a director, workshop facilitator and acting tutor.
Shaina Taub
Shaina Taub is an American singer, composer and musician.
Laurie Woolery
Laurie Woolery is a director, playwright, educator, facilitator and producer.
Gallery
Press
★★★★
The kind of theatre that allows you to imagine a better, kinder and more inclusive future.
★★★★
When the chorus members fill the stage with their praise of Arden they do a rare thing: make celebration seem not just like a declamatory audition but an urgent statement.
The Observer
★★★★
absolute firecracker of a finale
WhatsOnStage
★★★★
warm, vibrant and accessible
The Stage
Beth Hinton-Lever on change from the grassroots upwards
This rehearsal room is teaching me that just by being here and doing the best I can is enough. It’s teaching me not to fail, because you can’t fail in this environment.
Interview with Beth Hinton-Lever and community cast member, Jackie
Through the workshops, we have all increased in confidence. It’s been the best thing for everybody. We’ve gone to the National Theatre and sang on the train on the way back.
The National Theatre is teaming up with London’s budding homeless actors
Once we walk through that door, we are all actors.
Our funders
Theatre Nation Partnerships is generously supported by Arts Council England’s Strategic Touring Fund and Garfield Weston Foundation.
Public Acts is supported by Arts Council England’s Strategic Touring Fund, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, The CareTech Charitable Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation, Mosawi Foundation, The 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust and Susan Miller and Byron Grote.
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