In focus: Buzz Goodbody 1973

Buzz Goodbody's feminist modern-dress production featured a rock and roll score and a forest of metallic trees.

Woman in denim jeans and jacket with straw hat stands on a large tree trunk, against which a young man with open jacket and medalion sits — Rosalind (Eileen Atkins) and Orlando (David Suchet), 1973, Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Photo by Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Browse and license our images

ARDEN DROP-OUTS

Buzz Goodbody was the first woman to direct As You Like It in the Company's main house, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Although popular with audiences, critics criticised the production's lack of distinction between the court and the countryside. In an interview, Goodbody explained her thoughts on the play:
"Hardly anyone seems to do any work: the shepherds and shepherdesses...are not really country people. I see them as art college students - drop-outs who live in the country and have mummies and daddies in the town with large incomes." Birmingham Post, 9 June 1973.

DISASTER-PRONE

The production got off to a shakey start when the actor cast as Orlando, Bernard Lloyd, injured his back and was replaced by his understudy David Suchet, who had only three days to rehearse before the first preview. During the previews, both Eileen Atkins (Rosalind) and Annette Badland (Audrey) sustained ligament strains.

Reviewers thought Eileen Atkins was at her best as the blue-jeans Ganymede: "jaunty, critical, turning on joke voices and coupling brazen outward assurance with inner confusion" Irving Wardle, The Times, 13 June 1973.

Production photos

Brotherly strife: Oliver (Charles Keating) is threatened by Orlando (David Suchet), As You Like It, 1973, Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

Photo by Tom Holte Theatre Photographic Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Browse and license our images

Touchstone (Derek Smith), Celia (Maureen Lipman) and Rosalind (Eileen Atkins) in Duke Frederick's court, As You Like It, 1973, Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

Photo by Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Browse and license our images

Duke Frederick (Clement McCallin) stands between Charles the Wrestler (Brian Glover) and Orlando (David Suchet), As You Like It, 1973, Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

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Touchstone (Derek Smith), Rosalind (Eileen Atkins) and Celia (Maureen Lipman) reach the forest, As You Like It, 1973, Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

Photo by Tom Holte Theatre Photographic Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Browse and license our images

Corin (Jeffery Dench) and Rosalind (Eileen Atkins), As You Like It, 1973, Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

Photo by Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Browse and license our images

Celia (Maureen Lipman) and Rosalind (Eileen Atkins) reflect on love, As You Like It, 1973, Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

Photo by Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Browse and license our images

Richard Pasco as Jaques in As You Like It, 1973, Royal Shakespeare Theatre. He "seems to have wandered into Arden from the pages of Dostovesky” Irving Wardle, The Times, 13 June 1973

Photo by Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Browse and license our images

Celia (Maureen Lipman) reads Orlando's love poems aloud, As You Like It, 1973, Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

Photo by Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Browse and license our images

Audrey (Annette Badland) is courted by Touchstone (Derek Smith), As You Like It, 1973, Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

Photo by Tom Holte Theatre Photographic Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Browse and license our images

Celia (Maureen Lipman) and Rosalind (Eileen Atkins) in the forest, As You Like It, 1973, Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

Photo by Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Browse and license our images

Sir Oliver Martext (Richard Mayes) presides over the marriage of Audrey (Annette Badland) and Touchstone (Derek Smith), As You Like It, 1973, Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

Photo by Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Browse and license our images

Launch Gallery

A WOMAN'S PLACE

Theatrical poster for As You Like It 1973 on blue background, featuring cast list, quote from Martin Luther and rear view of jeans wearing Rosalind

Buzz Goodbody's As You Like It is often referred to as a feminist production. Active in the Women's Movement, Goodbody was a founding member of the Women's Street Theatre Group. The souvenir poster, inserted in the programme, provocatively juxtaposed the rear view of a jeans-clad Rosalind with Protestant Reformer Martin Luther's 16th century views on a woman's place.
In addition, four pages of the programme were dedicated to exploring the theme including an article by the Shakespearean scholar Anne Barton, extracts from which are reproduced below.

“Rosalind is one of five Shakespearean heroines (the others being Julia, Portia, Viola and Imogen) who adopt male disguise. There were early Elizabethan precedents for such behaviour. In Lyly’s Gallathea (1585) and in Greene’s James IV (1590) women disguise themselves for a time as men. They do so in both plays out of fear, because their lives are threatened and they need to obliterate their own identity until conditions change. Rosalind transforms herself into the boy Ganymede initially for a similar reason: to escape the wrath of Duke Frederick and to provide protection for herself and Celia on their journey into Arden. But she uses her disguise constructively, as the heroines of Greene and Lyly had not…In her masculine disguise, Rosalind is free. She can talk to men and women alike without coquetry or pretence…It confirms her in her own comprehension of herself.” Anne Barton, programme for As You Like It, 1973, Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

TUBULAR TREES

Famed for his structural simplicity, Christopher Morley designed a single set of tubular trees with a circular acting space in front. One critic joked that the "dangling metal pipes for the forest background suggests that some-one has disembowelled the Albert Hall organ above the stage" Jeremy Kingston, Punch, 20 June 1973.
The following gallery includes examples of Morley's set and costume designs for the production.

Set and Costumes

Designer Christopher Morley's set model for As You Like It, 1973, Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

Silvius (Peter Machin) with Rosalind (Eileen Atkins) and Celia (Maureen Lipman), As You Like It, 1973, Royal Shakespeare Theatre. The forest of tubular trees are visible in the background.

Photo by Tom Holte Theatre Photographic Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Browse and license our images

Stage management diagram for a forest scene in As You Like It, 1973, Royal Shakespeare Theatre. This diagram shows the position of the hammock and simple props including a carpet and cushions.

Directed by Buzz Goodbody © RSC Browse and license our images

Celia (Maureen Lipman) and Rosalind (Eileen Atkins ) dressed formally in Duke Frederick's court, As You Like It, 1973, Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Celia wore a brown velveteen dress with a cameo on a choker while Rosalind had a navy silk satin and chiffon velvet dress.

Photo by Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Browse and license our images

Costume sheet for Celia (Maureen Lipman) in As You Like It, 1973, Royal Shakespeare Theatre. This form lists all the costume and accessory items for Celia including jewellery and a hat.

Rosalind (Eileen Atkins) disguised as Ganymede in As You Like It, 1973, Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Christopher Morley's costume design features a sleeveless suede fringed crotchet jerkin and a pair of blue jeans.

Photo by Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Browse and license our images

Costume sheet for Rosalind (Eileen Atkins) in As You Like It, 1973, Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Christopher Morley’s costume designs include the formal navy dress worn at the beginning of the play, a nightdress and the casual modern jeans and jerkin for her alter ego, Ganymede.

Fingers crossed: Rosalind (Eileen Atkins) and Celia (Maureen Lipman), As You Like It, 1973, Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Wearing their Arden disguises, the two friends stand in front of a realistic fallen trunk which contrasts with the artificial metallic tubes representing the rest of designer Christopher Morley's forest.

Photo by Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Browse and license our images

Launch Gallery

CAST AND CREATIVES

COMPANY

Royal Shakespeare Theatre

John Abbott - Jaques de Boys, Servant

Ray Armstrong - Amiens

Eileen Atkins - Rosalind

Annette Badland - Audrey

Sydney Bromley - Adam

Janet Chappell - Lady, Phoebe

Tony Church - Duke Senior

Ian Collins - Page (alt)

Jeffery Dench - Corin

Michael Ensign - Hymen, Lord

Brian Glover - Charles

Nickolas Grace - Dennis, Servant

Wilfred Grove – Courtier, Servant 1

Charles Keating - Oliver

Catherine Kessler - Lady

Maureen Lipman - Celia

Peter Machin - Courtier, Silvius

Colin Mayes - Servant

Richard Mayes - Sir Oliver Martext

Clement McCallin - Duke Frederick

Lloyd McGuire - Courtier, Servant, William

Merlin Milner - Page (alt)

Richard Pasco - Jaques

Anthony Pedley - Le Beau

Derek Smith - Touchstone

David Suchet - Orlando

Leon Tanner - Courtier, Lord

Simon Walker - Page (alt)

Neil Weerdmeester - Page (alt)

Janet Whiteside - Hisperia

CREATIVES

Director – Buzz Goodbody

Designer – Christopher Morley

Lighting Designer – Brian Harris

Music – Guy Woolfenden

Choreographer – John Broome

Fight arranger – Brian Glover

The RSC's archive is held at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. You can visit the Library and Archives there to look at production related information, including photos, videos of shows and stage management documents:

Shakespeare Centre Library and Archive homepage

You can search the RSC catalogue here:

RSC performance database

ARDEN DROP-OUTS

DISASTER-PRONE

Production photos

A WOMAN'S PLACE

TUBULAR TREES

Set and Costumes

CAST AND CREATIVES

COMPANY

CREATIVES

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