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As You Like It (Public Acts)

The second Public Acts production is a timeless story of chance encounters, featuring a community cast of over 100 members.

The words As You Like It in forest green against a tree made of green hands with two people sitting in those hands as if they were branches

Booking and details

24 — 27 August 2019
This show has now ended
The event location is

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.

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

Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch

Production team

Douglas Rintoul

Douglas Rintoul

Director

Hayley Grindle

Hayley Grindle

Set and Costume Designer

Paul Anderson

Paul Anderson

Lighting Designer

Leigh Davies

Leigh Davies

Sound Designer

Yshani Perinpanayagam

Yshani Perinpanayagam

Musical Director

Sundeep Saini

Sundeep Saini

Choreography and Movement

Jules Tipton

Jules Tipton

Assistant Director

Shaina Taub

Shaina Taub

Adaptor, music and lyrics

Laurie Woolery

Laurie Woolery

Adaptor

Gallery

Linford Johnson and two members of the company, one person intervening in an argument between the other two.
Linford Johnson and two members of the company, one person intervening in an argument between the other two.
Linford Johnson and two members of the company, one person intervening in an argument between the other two.
View 12 images
Ebony Jonelle as Rosalind, dressed in a purple dress, sitting on the floor and shoeless A member of the company dressed in a pink onesie and woolly multicoloured coat singing The As You Like It company onstage dressed in multicolours A young member of the cast in an orange hat and dungarees holding up a pencil and carrying a red notebook A group of five actors, dressed in sparkly outfits and visors, singing and posing A group of cast members dressed in black boiler suits and maroon berets and a headscarf singing A cast member in a lime green dress singing with their arms wide open A cast member in a sparkly bowtie and suit with one fist raised in the air, holding a microphone, with the ensemble cast behind holding foam fingers A cast member dressed in orange smiling and clapping Two people standing in front of one another, dressed in white, backed by the ensemble cast Beth Hinton-Lever singing at the front of the stage, backed by a large ensemble cast

Production gallery

Focus on Rohan Reckord and a cast member in rehearsal, one holding a microphone and the other smiling.
Focus on Rohan Reckord and a cast member in rehearsal, one holding a microphone and the other smiling.
Focus on Rohan Reckord and a cast member in rehearsal, one holding a microphone and the other smiling.
View 10 images
An individual during rehearsal, crouched down low with both fingers pointing outwards. Two people in rehearsal, embracing one another. Focus in on an individual during rehearsal, smiling with their arms in the air. A bird's eye image of the As You Like It company in rehearsal, smiling and waving. Focus on an individual in rehearsal, smiling. Two people smiling during rehearsal. A group of people cheering and clapping. Two people rehearsing, one with their arm around another. Beth Hinton-Lever with a script under their arm and a pencil behind their ear smiling in the middle of the rehearsing ensemble.

Rehearsal gallery

The words 'Introducing As You Like It' in white against a forest green background
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Public Acts – As You Like It

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Press

★★★★

The kind of theatre that allows you to imagine a better, kinder and more inclusive future.

The Guardian

★★★★

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

4 reviews

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.

Beth Hinton-Lever on change from the grassroots upwards

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.

Interview with Beth Hinton-Lever and community cast member, Jackie

The National Theatre is teaming up with London’s budding homeless actors

Once we walk through that door, we are all actors.

The National Theatre is teaming up with London’s budding homeless 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.

Find out more about supporting our work