As you Like it

by Laura Mackenzie
(London)

Adapted from Shakespeare's Play 'As You Like It'

Touchstone:

When the sun sets on this day, I will be a married man, and when the moon rises on this night, I will be a very happy man! My wife the shepherdess, my wife who is in awe of me, and is eternally grateful for making her an honest woman. What more could one man desire? Oh sweet and trusting Audrey! She thinks me, an honest man, an intelligent man, with my quick tongue and twisted speech. She thinks me intelligent! Ha! And yet in the court I am called a fool and in this forest I am treated as a king! I feel the court should be more like the forest. My wife, she really believes I’m making an honest woman of her, does she not know I’m marring her to do just the opposite? Naive Audrey, ignorant Audrey, stupid Audrey! She’ll make a mockery of me.

Audrey:

Oh joyful, happy day! Oh if my late parents could see me now, old mama would cry with joy, to see her little girl wed to such an honest man! When the sun rises tomorrow, I will be a married woman, a Mrs, no longer a miss. My husband, such a fine, intelligent, strong man. He’ll make an honest woman of me, and with this ring upon my finger, I feel so very secure! And after we’re wed, my husband and I will live in comfort and security and of course blissful happiness. And perhaps in good time, we’ll have a family. I’ve always wanted a daughter, and perhaps a little son to follow in my husbands footsteps. Oh how happy we will be! Oh joyful day!

Orlando:

My mind is a cocktail of emotions, how is it possible for one man to feel so many ways at the same time? For one I feel foolish, how could I be so blind to not see my own true love sitting in front of me. She has made a fool of me and for that I am ashamed. I also feel a hint of anger amongst the cocktail. How could she torture me in such a way? And for so long? A huge sense of relief is washing over me, I have found her, the one girl for me, against all the odds I have found her and she is mine. But of course the largest feeling I am experiencing is joy. Pure joy that I can spend the rest of my life with the one person I believe I am truly meant to be with. And hope, and expectations for the future, who knows what adventures lie ahead of us?

Rosalind:

I know I am meant to feel happy, for it is my wedding day, and God strike me down if I’m lying, I am happy, the happiest I can ever remember being. But I am also saddened, these last few weeks have been so thrilling to me. To be a woman on the inside, but to appear as a man to the outside, I felt powerful, so powerful. People listened to me when I spoke to them, the treated me with respect. I have had a taste of power and respect, a taste of being a man. And some may say that I’ve had my fun, quenched my thirst and that now I must return to reality, to being a woman. But this sweet taste has not quenched my thirst, but made me thirstier still, and I crave it. I feel I can never return to being simply woman. Lowly, obedient, powerless woman.