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  • As You Fucking Like It ★★★★★

Review

As You Fucking Like It ★★★★★

Pushing the gender paradoxes of Shakespeare's comedy to the extreme, the Deutsches Theater 'As You Fucking Like It' breaks the fourth wall with plenty of light-hearted absurdity.

Regine Zimmermann, Helmut Mooshammer, Caner Sunar, Lisa Hrdina. Photo: Arno Declair

Lit in the colours of the transgender flag – magenta and teal – the Deutsches Theater’s Kammerspiele is brimming with anticipation. Queers old and young have come to see Bastian Kraft’s latest stroke of genius. As You Fucking Like It dives straight in. The first line has the audience in stitches; the four Rosalinds, clad in bright pink and all on stage at the same time, introduce themselves.

The first line has the audience in stitches

It’s clear from the start: Kraft’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s most popular comedy takes the gender paradoxes to the extreme. With the physical, intellectual and sensual intermingling, everything is up for grabs and anything can happen. The remaining 12 characters are all played by the same four Rosalind actors, who take turns synchronising pre-recordings of their other roles in real time, which doesn’t just require technical precision but also adds yet another playful layering element to the comedy.

Kraft doesn’t bother with the fourth wall; the audience is addressee, stage and part of the proceedings all in one. Hilarious, hectic and light-hearted, the play’s heteronormative criticism, comforting in its unoriginality, leaves no room for interpretation: gender is manifold, and love is for everyone. Special applause must go to Jelena Miletić’s costumes, which are in a monochromatic class of their own.

  • Deutsches Theater, Schumannstr. 13A, Mitte. 15; 21.02.23, 25.26.03.23. In German with English surtitles. Directed by Bastian Kraft