'As You Like It' at the National Theatre

'As You Like It' at the National Theatre only started in preview on Monday this week but we went to see it tonight so this was the third time they've done a full performance in front of an audience. Might I saw 'wow'?

Before-hand I was trying to think how I knew the story to the play - I've never seen it so must have read it at some point. It hasn't played at the National for 30 years so it's well overdue a showing. Shakespeare tells eternal stories and, with him, sometimes it's the writing or story-telling or clever plotting that really stands out and sometimes it's the whole lot. There's some wonderful writing in this play (such as the 'All the world's a stage…' speech) but there are also some lovely characters and that's partly the casting and production.

It's the tale of Rosalind (daughter of the deposed Duke) and Orlando (son of a knight loyal to the Duke), our young lovers who meet once and can't tell each other of the love bomb that dropped because they don't know how to. Then Orlando needs to flee since his older brother plots to kill him and Rosalind is banished by the usurper Duke and they both end up in the Forest of Arden. Except Rosalind is dressed as a man to help protect her and her friend Celia (the usurper Duke's daughter). Throughout the forest are various lovers and would-be lovers that appear and disappear on an ongoing basis as well as the deposed Duke and his followers. After much to-ing and fro-ing our young lovers get together and are married with three other sets of lovers (including Orlando's older brother who's seen the error of his ways and marries Celia). There's a lot going on in this tale, with love, usurpation, pretence and country v city life all being themes within the play.

So that's the story (sort of) but what about the production? When I walked into the theatre I hated it. Awful! The set is a bright office with a multi-coloured carpet, computer screens everywhere and actors already sitting at desks doing, I suppose, 'acting'. I'm getting bored with this current trend of actors being on stage being busy before the thing starts. But the set was awful. Clashing colours, loads of desks for the actors to manoeuvre round… an accident waiting to happen. On comes Orlando, our hero, dressed as an office cleaner. And then he opens his mouth and out comes this poetry - the setting is all wrong, it jars and maybe that's what it's meant to do but I didn't like it. Despite hating the set, the writing and acting kept me engaged.

When Rosalind and Orlando escaped separately and headed to Arden is when the magic happened. The ceiling of the office started to rise and pulled all the office furniture after it, using the tremendous height of the Olivier Theatre to pull the furniture up and up so it started to take the shape of the gnarled trees of the forest. The transformation was gob-smacking! And then there were actors in chairs up in the trees playing the parts of the wind, the birds and whatever background noises were needed. I was all 'wow!' about it. That was spectacular! But I didn't see what happened to the awful office carpet - where did that go?

There aren't any production photos available yet but it'll be a thrill to see them - especially a video of the transformation scene, that's what I'd like. There are all sorts of oddities in the production, like a herd of sheep invading the stage at one point which is half the cast on their hands and knees wearing big wooly jumpers. At first I was all 'whaaaat?' but then I loved them. I *want* a herd of sheep now, please. How inspired and playful and fitting for this play.

The writing is wonderful but it's the actors that bring it to life and I really liked Rosalind and Orlando played by Rosalie Craig and Joe Bannister - I thought they made a really charming couple. I know who wears the trousers in that house. Patsy Ferran was great fun as Celia, playing her very modern and knowing and by no means just anyone's sidekick. I last saw Patsy as 'Jim Hawkins' in 'Treasure Island' at the National last year. Of the minor characters I liked old Adam, played by Patrick Godfrey, as Orlando's loyal servant, who gave a very touching performance and Ken Nwosu as the shepherd in love with his shepherdess who spurns him. Ken's desperation to please, to love his shepherdess was almost lip-trembling in it's tenderness (someone to watch, I think).

The final word must go to Lizzie Clachan for her set design and the astonishing transformation from office to forest. I mean, wow! I sat with my mouth open, gawping at it in front of me. But Lizzie, what happened to the carpet? Where did it go?

'Treasure Island' at the National Theatre

My post-Christmas treat was a visit to see 'Treasure Island' at the National Theatre. My history with 'Treasure Island' goes back 40 years or so ago when I first read Robert Louis Stevenson's book about the adventures of young Jim Hawkins and the pirates. Robert Newton immortalised Long John Silver in the definitive film version of the book. For some reason it's considered a children's book but it wasn't written as such. I rediscovered the book a few years ago and fell in love with it all over again, with it's swashbuckling on the high seas and hunting for pirate treasure. Yo ho ho me hearties!

This version was written by Bryony Lavery, using the key elements of the book but adapting it to make an intriguing stage play. So, for example, Jim becomes Jemima in a change that worried me when I heard about it but it works very well. It's not a literal translation of the book onto the stage but it's pretty close in many respects.

I always assume that everyone reads this book when young but I heard one theatre-goer behind me say that he'd never read it so I'll briefly outline the story of the play…

Young Jim Hawkins and her grandmother run an inn on the south coast and are visited by Bill Bones who pays in advance for lodgings, food and rum. He's visited by Black Dog and then by Blind Pew, both wanting old Flint's treasure map, and Blind Pew throws the black spot at Bones and he dies. Jim has the map and takes it to Squire Trelawney and the Doctor who decide to go treasure-hunting themselves. The Squire buys a ship and hires a crew that includes many of Long John Silver's former crewmates as well as Silver himself and off they sail. When they reach the island the crew mutinies but the Squire, Doctor and Jim escape with the loyal crew and the map. Jim meets Ben Gunn who was the cabin boy on Flint's ship but was left ashore when it sailed away and he's gone mad since he hasn't seen anyone in three years. O, and he likes cheese (especially toasted if you have any). Battle and wily shenanigans take place between the pirates and the Squire's people and, of course, the Squire's side wins and sails back to Britain rich as Croesus and jolly pleased with themselves.

So there you are, the bare bones of the greatest pirate story ever but you really need to see it to experience the full story. The stage is a major character in itself, transforming from an old inn to a galleon with three levels and then into the mist-shrounded desert island. It's great what they can do with a simple stage these days and I was mighty impressed with its flexibility and ability to transform from one thing into another. And the lighting was pretty good too, atmospheric and haunting and, every now and then, the lighting extended out into the ceiling of the auditorium above the audience to show the constellations of stars the pirates use to sail by. It was all terribly well done.

The cast were top notch as well, with Patsy Ferran as our heroine Jim and Arthur Darvill as Long John Silver. Arthur played Long John as charming and cunning by turns, a clever pirate who can turn every eventuality to his own good. The only problem I had was that he didn't look like Long John or, indeed, a pirate. He should've been heavier and older and he didn't really have a peg-leg at all, just some 'wood' strapped to one leg that he referred to as his new leg. But I can forgive that because he did, at least, have a parrot on his shoulder some of the time.

I also quite liked Nick Fletcher as the bombastic squire with the loud mouth and Daniel Coonan as Black Dog who allows the prisoners to escape on the island by getting drunk on grog. They were all good really, and all great fun in their own, often dastardly, way.

I was looking forward to seeing this on stage and spent the morning with my pirate scarf tied round my head. Would I be disappointed like with 'White Christmas' the week before? Don't get your hopes up, I told myself, but I couldn't help it. Luckily I loved the production! It brought magic and wonder in its wake as it sailed the seas of the Olivier stage, and that's exactly what we need at this darkest time of the year in London.

The audience was a curious mix of older people who clearly love the book and parents (and some grandparents) bringing their children to see the play as a Christmas outing. I hope it worked its magic on those young eyes and shone a light on them to make them begin to love theatre. They might be the audiences of the future.

My major complaint was that there were no bottles of rum or grog to swig from at half time and no grog flavoured ice-cream. What an opportunity missed!

Oo ar Jim lad, let's have a rousing chorus of '15 men on a dead man's chest, yo ho ho and a bootle of rum!' Strike the sails and let's set off for an adventure on an island where X really does mark the spot...