The following interview with Prof. Michael Dobson and Pippa Nixon was conducted on June 17 and 18, 2013.

Hannes Rall (interviewer)

Prof. Michael Dobson, University of Birmingham, Director of the Shakespeare Institute Stratford-upon-Avon (interviewed)

Pippa Nixon, actress, performed as “Rosalind” in the 2013 production of As You Like It by the Royal Shakespeare Company (interviewed) Figure 5.2 Prof. Michael Dobson, director of the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-Upon-Avon. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315714493/18fdc22f-35a0-414c-bbb0-9666efaf5a86/content/fig5_2_C.jpg"/>

I spent a great deal of my artistic life adapting classic literature for animation. I am hoping to continue this string of well-reviewed films with a new adaptation of a major Shakespeare play: As You Like It. I intend to come up with something interesting but also an animated version that captures the very essence of the play. So, what is for you at the very center of the play?

Love.

That is a perfect answer.

Love, yes.

196The reason why I consider this to be a very intriguing answer is that there are indeed many themes and topics in As You like It, but it is true, everything is related with or rooted in love somehow. It talks about people being rejected and unrequited love.

And, in some ways, it is also about marriage, because it is not good enough just falling in love with someone, but it is like what are you going to do with it?

Reasonable or entirely unreasonable choices.

Commitment, because, I think, at the beginning of the play, there is quite a strong residue of melancholy between Rosalind and the Duke; her father has been banished from the court, and even though it says that Celia wanted her to stay behind, perhaps there is a feeling of abandonment, and therefore, it is then difficult to trust that someone is going to stay. And so, perhaps that leftover residue comes into her testing Orlando in an extreme way. Can she really trust that someone is not going to leave her? So, perhaps it is about love, but maybe it is about commitment too, or marriage.

I completely agree, but for us, there is also another challenge: Looking at the production realities of our animated adaptation, we will have to come up with an abridged version. We will be required to focus on a certain aspect of the play. And it certainly helps that you are identifying a central topic so clearly. Would you think that focusing, for example, on the relationship between Rosalind/Ganymede and Orlando could be an option to consider? What is your thought about even neglecting some supporting characters?

To be honest, Maria (Aberg), our director has probably focused the play around the Orlando and Rosalind relationship. She has not really cut much of the play, but it has been centered around that. When it came to the previews, the very first shows, it became necessary to shorten the performance. I actually did propose to cut some time from my and Orlando’s scenes, and she said, no, because it is the heartbeat of the play. So, I think if your animated adaptation is about half an hour long, you have to center it on that relationship.

Figure 5.3 Pippa Nixon performing as Rosalind in the 2013 Royal Shakespeare Company Production of <italic>All the World’s a Stage</italic>, directed by Maria Aberg. Photographer: Keith Pattison. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315714493/18fdc22f-35a0-414c-bbb0-9666efaf5a86/content/fig5_3_C.jpg"/> (Courtesy of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon 2013.)

197I am also convinced that it is necessary to find a specific focus.

But also, the theme of love in all of its complexity needs to be considered. So, Rosalind and Orlando is the central relationship of love, because it also has its complications. Then, you have Silvius and Phoebe, which is unrequited love, and then, you have Touchstone and Audrey, which is lust. Then, you have Oliver and Celia, which is love at first sight, immediately going to get married, which in some ways, I think, propels Rosalind to marry Orlando. So, you need those four couples, but you could just do a two-dimensional storytelling of those three other couples, if you focused it on Rosalind and Orlando. But I think you would need to have a little strain of each of the other themes.

Absolutely. I was watching that one adaptation that was already done, by the BBC, produced in the early 1990s.

Was it a cartoon?

Yes.

Because I remember seeing them when I was younger.

Sylvestra Le Touzel does Rosalind’s voice, and Stephan Bednarzyk, who I used to be in revue with, when we were students, did the (sound) ambience and the music for it. It is done in a style strongly reminiscent of children’s picture books and using a watercolor technique.

When considering the narrative aspects only, every adaptation will probably have its shortcomings in that shorter version. But what I found quite well done there is that they also somehow established a focus. You can understand the story completely, even in that shorter version, which is difficult enough. With As You Like It, you encounter such a huge sprawling epic, and there are so many almost-anecdotal themes going on, branching off in so many directions. They are all connected, but it is very hard to get all of this into a more condensed format. Actually, these are similar problems like I faced in my last film The Cold Heart. The richness of the source material there also would initially be more suitable for a feature-film format than for 30 minutes. Your analysis of the central themes of As You like It will therefore prove very helpful going forward: It will help us center our version around these focal points and condense the narrative, without neglecting the essence of the original.