'All the world’s a stage' – even Mully’s: A Review of UCL Shakespeare Society’s ‘As You Like It’
Image Credit: Reo Lane
After racing through the streets of Bloomsbury – only to realise I was in fact half an hour early – I settled into the back of Mully’s at quarter to eight, thawing from the cold outside. Met with a stage blanketed in butterflies, shiny streamers and fairy lights (courtesy of creative assistant producer Holly Bain and set designers Grace Lashbrook and Liyana Ahmed), it felt far from the student bar we all know. Then darkness. Quiet. A monologue sliced through the hefty silence, underscored by a brooding bass line that promised ‘this is about to get messy’. And messy it got.
The play opened with brothers Orlando (Nicholas Bushara) and Oliver (Sofia Waring) launching into a rivalry familiar to anyone who has ever shared a childhood bedroom with their sibling. The dispute escalated, naturally, into a fight with Charles – a sock puppet… with abs. Shakespeare would approve.
Watching from the sidelines were sisters-by-choice, cousins-by-blood, Rosalind (Maia Avery) and Celia (Teddy Todd-Hinton), whose chemistry quickly became the emotional backbone of the production: their dynamic was warm, playful, and genuinely believable, grounding even the most absurd moments. Avery in particular balanced Rosalind’s wit and vulnerability with impressive ease – making it entirely reasonable that she’d fall for Orlando after watching him wrestle a sock puppet. The chaos soon sent Orlando fleeing to the Forest of Arden, and Rosalind and Celia – disguised as Ganymede and Aliena respectively – separately following suit alongside Touchstone (Eurus Ng), the chaotic court fool sporting spectacular spiky hair, bold makeup and a costume deserving of a gallery label (courtesy of costume duo Yuki Li and Jannike Prins).
Directors Audrey Lau and Sofia Masondo weren’t shy about putting their own stamp on the text. Their mixing of Shakespearean dialect with modern-day slang blended past and present in a way that felt playful, rather than jarring. The production’s variety was further reflected in Ren Harcourt’s dual performance as both the tyrannical Duke Frederick and the disgraced Duke Senior.
We meet Duke Senior at the beachside Forest of Arden Small Plates Eatery, instantly a strong contender in today’s small plates epidemic. With a menu featuring the ‘As You Like It’ dish, Tesco’s Finest green grapes, and drinks proudly sponsored by UCL’s very own Mully’s, the setting marked a clear tonal shift from the previously taut court scenes. Amiens (Carlos Rangel Outeda) provided folk music that transformed Mully’s into UCL’s very own Glastonbury festival, while the First and Second Lords (Emily Szor and Sophie Jeffcote) brought comedic warmth and levity to the stage. Jaques (David Arisa) provided the perfect counterpoint, his deadpan cynicism rivalling the forest’s relentless optimism. Together, the ensemble had the energy of a friend group you’d desperately want to be in.
Audience interaction was where the show truly thrived. We soon saw Orlando return with Adam (Zaryab Hashmi) – the loyal, quietly comic heart of the play who had collapsed in the woods. With unparalleled encouragement and lyric cue cards, the cast and audience sang Adam back to his feet – a joint effort in my personal opinion. It was silly, communal, and entirely in the spirit of a student production.
The romantic chaos unfolded efficiently from there. Rosalind and Celia reappear onstage, adorning backpacks that scream Duke of Edinburgh expedition. They discover Orlando’s love notes to Rosalind carved into the trees (vandalism, but sure), and Rosalind falls for him harder.
Elsewhere, Touchstone courts Audrey (Emily Szor) with the same spiky-haired confidence that has defined him all night, and Silvius (Sophie Jeffcote) begs Phoebe (Sofia Prudencio) for love, only to be met with a devastatingly flat “I frown on thee with all my heart”. Ouch.
The show’s finale delivered a convenient four-way wedding. Catered, naturally, by Mully’s open bar, the nuptials consisted of laughter, ‘I do’s’, and dancing that spilled into the aisles. Throughout the night, the audience was kept front and centre: we were questioned, serenaded, danced with, and pulled into a collective singalong that blurred the lines between cast and crowd.
The production closed with Avery alone onstage, now restored as Rosalind. Her epilogue acknowledged its own oddness, pointing out how unusual it is for a woman to have the final word – and that the play honestly didn’t really need one anyway. It was a fitting sign-off for a production that knew exactly what it was doing, and clearly had a brilliant time doing it.
Directed by Audrey Lau and Sofia Masondo, UCL Shakespeare Society’s ‘As You Like It’ was performed on the 23rd and 24th of January, in Mully’s Bar.