As You Like It

Anna Sokolova
Mar 10
5 min read

Flight Path Theatre Sydney, 4-14 March 2026

The review

The company whose show “Twelfth Night or What You Will” I saw in 2023, and since then have been following closely. Nobody excels the same way in making layered, smart-alecky, sassy and knitted of infinite funny lines comedies - think of the recent “The Frogs: in Hell, They Sing Show Tunes”.

“Twelfth Night or What You Will” is a dense, crowded play, where nearly every actor has a double role.

Young and beautiful Rosalind (Jade Fuda) is banished from the land of Duchess Francoise (Sonya Kerr) and, veiled as a young man, runs away with her cousin, Celia (Larissa Turtonas), to the Forest of Arden. Somewhere in that remote place, a merry gang ruled by Duchess Senior (Sonya Kerr), who is Rosalind’s mother, lives poorly, but gaily. Both gentle women are sisters, one betraying the other for power. At the same time, noble Orlando (Pat Mandziy), losing a wrestling match treacherously set up by his brother Oliver (Nicholas Starte) fight with the Court favourite Charles (Jack Elliot Mitchell), and needs to hide too. Accidental collisions, coincidental encounters, glances, conversations are set to direct the flow of the event to the happy ending with falling in love, singing, dancing, re-bonding, transforming selfish and angry into a sweet and fair, and big weddings.

The creative team places this entangled fun into a small space masterfully. Beautiful language, excellent teamwork, directing, music, lighting, and elaborated, overly matching but smartly varying in details, costumes made with strong taste and a sense of atmosphere.

It is cozy when in the Forest of Arden or the fields. Rugs on the floor, armchair, piano, picnic baskets, shelves along the walls with countless sweet small homie items. A big net arranged under the ceiling, decorated with bulbs, flooding warmth, or making the space grey and grim when the story calls.

Instant transition from a forest to a cold, uninviting palace of the cruel duchess.

Singing and live piano, bango, violin sounds bind it all together, cleverly directed by a long-time collaborator of Alex Kendall Robson, Zachary Aleksander @thezacharygallery, together with Hannah Buckley @hannah_rose07. Max Fernandez, Brea Macey (who both are also hilarious sheep, indifferently wandering and chewing on the grass and plants, but apparently real companions to their shepherd), and James Robin are high-class, musical-theatre performers.

Changes to the icy-cold palace of the cruel Duchess are instant. The group which just was there in a flowerie, colourful, summer clothes put on black and white thick coats, Sonya Kerr clips her long red hair into a tight knot, buttons are made up to the throat, backs are straightened and stiffened, the joy is whipped off, the looks of steel or obeying on, and there is not a trace of freedom left anymore.

There is nearly every stage can be taken as a piece to re-watch for pleasure. When Orlando is preparing for a fight, a court man calls him and is suddenly struck by his appearance and strength. His look is so admiring, he is so intensely struggling to catch a breath, that everyone starts to look at Orlando differently, too. All are wondering now that yes, sure, he is really something, must be hot, if awakes such a reaction.

Jack Elliot Mitchell’s pantomimes playing an elderly servant are textbook-perfectly performed; he evokes compassion but is also deadly funny.

A nice touch when Celia (a loyal, charming, wise, big-hearted, not always brave but full of courage for her best friend and cousin) and Rosalind do not dare to step on a carpet ready for wrestling, they carefully shuffle around, and the space looks big and separated.

Rosalind is the cutest character, dressed as a girl or a young man. Jane Fuda fills her up with so much love, liveliness, bravery that there is not a moment when this all-around positive character is not interesting. Her excitement, those little jumps when Rosalind realizes Orlando loves her. Her long lines about loving, proving it, testing it - a delicious treat for ears.

A masterful comic talent, Meg Bennetts @meg.k.bennetts, whose two characters - she is switching between so quickly that sometimes it feels like both women are there simultaneously. Her Audrey and Phebe are both in love, but very differently. Phebe is in a duet with a countryside-fashioned decent, steady, not smart, honest, who falls under her charm, Sylvius (Nicholas Starte). And Audrey, who is all-parts-moving, burned by a passion for Touchstone (Zachary Aleksander). A court person in exile, witty, sharp-minded, with the supple body of a dancer, bored stiff in the forest, he has found a stirring entertainment in flirting with the woman.

It is a pity there is no language in Australian theatre writing to talk about actors' bodies in direct relation to their roles, on the stage. In the Russian school of studying theatre, it is a big part, and this is a very important thing. Bodies are the same instrument as voice, or facial expressions, so having a person with the right type (not always, of course) is a bit add-on to the story, for how it reads.

AlexKendall Robson’s monologue about the several stages of human life, from a baby to a baby again, starts with a description of his character who perfectly matches the features of his own. There are other very funny, light-hearted love-comedy scenes where the pairing of characters of very different appearances enriches the experience of watching it, adding depth to excellent acting, clever directing, and casting decisions.

It is a lighthearted, joyful, funny comedy, a perfect romance with smartly embedded droplets of philosophy. Theatre made with love and to celebrate love. A perfect antidote to a grim outside (for me it was a perfect timing - to see it two days after a strong but smashing and dark ‘Mirror’ at Belvoir).

This theatre may not be the way to change reality, but maybe it is - like the call in the “Frogs”. And it is certainly there to shelter, to make laugh, catch a breath, and let those strings on your soul resonate with passion and believe that good is winning over bad.