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  • Title: As You Like It
  • Author: William Shakespeare
  • Narrator: Various Readers
  • Length: 02:27:00
  • Version: Abridged
  • Release Date: 01/01/2011
  • Publisher: Speak the Speech
  • Genre: Drama, Shakespeare
  • ISBN13: SABFAB9780688
Dear kindred spirits of the spoken word,

The first time I heard the Forest of Arden come alive through my headphones, I was sitting in a Tokyo park during my visiting professorship, watching cherry blossoms drift to the ground in perfect synchronization with Jaques’ “All the world’s a stage” monologue. This full-cast audio performance of “As You Like It” by Speak the Speech doesn’t merely recite Shakespeare – it breathes new dimension into his 16th century pastoral comedy through carefully orchestrated vocal interplay that makes the text shimmer with contemporary relevance.

What fascinates me most about this production is how the multiple narrators create a tapestry of perspectives, much like my comparative literature students at Berkeley would when we’d read scenes aloud in roundtable discussions. The actress portraying Rosalind captures the character’s mercurial intelligence with delicious wit, her voice shifting seamlessly between the lovesick maiden and the swaggering Ganymede. This duality reminds me of teaching “Twelfth Night” alongside contemporary gender-bending works – Shakespeare’s exploration of performed identity feels startlingly modern when heard rather than read.

Through a cultural lens, the audio format particularly enhances the play’s central contrasts. The court scenes sound crisp and clipped, while the Forest of Arden sequences blossom with ambient nature sounds and looser vocal rhythms. I found myself transported back to childhood summers in my grandmother’s Jiangsu village, where the rustling bamboo created its own Shakespearean chorus. The production smartly emphasizes the pastoral elements with acoustic depth – when Touchstone philosophizes about country versus courtly life, you can practically smell the damp earth.

Key themes emerge with new clarity in this aural presentation:

1. “”Love’s Transformations””: Orlando’s love-struck verses gain hilarious pathos when delivered with over-earnest vigor, while Rosalind’s teasing as Ganymede crackles with playful tension
2. “”Exile as Liberation””: The Duke’s banished court develops distinct vocal personalities, making their forest camaraderie more poignant
3. “”Nature’s Wisdom””: Jaques’ melancholy takes on richer textures when his speeches aren’t interrupted by footnotes

Some purists might argue that the added sound effects (bird calls, rustling pages) distract from Shakespeare’s language. Yet as someone who’s studied how different mediums shape narrative perception – from Murakami’s bilingual magic realism to “Cloud Atlas” across formats – I appreciate how this production uses audio-specific tools to honor the text’s spirit rather than just its letter. The laughter during Touchstone’s jokes feels organic, not canned, preserving the play’s essential theatricality.

Compared to single-narrator Shakespeare audiobooks, this ensemble approach particularly suits the pastoral genre’s polyphonic nature. It recalls the best qualities of both stage productions (immediacy, chemistry between actors) and close reading (attention to linguistic nuance). While the recording shows its age in occasional audio unevenness between voices, this actually enhances the rustic charm – like hearing different instruments tune up before a symphony.

For first-time Shakespeare listeners, this free audiobook offers an ideal entry point. The clarity of performance helps decode Elizabethan wordplay that might stall silent reading. For scholars, it provides fresh insights – I caught new foreshadowing in Celia’s early lines that I’d overlooked in twenty years of teaching the text. And for commuting book lovers, it transforms traffic jams into the Forest of Arden.

Standout moments include:
– The wrestling match’s visceral soundscape
– Rosalind and Celia’s whispered conspiracies
– The melancholic hush before “All the world’s a stage”
– The joyous, slightly chaotic finale where all voices intertwine

If “As You Like It” represents Shakespeare’s most musical comedy, this production is its finest orchestration – proof that dramatic works evolve when liberated from the page. As I tell my TEDx audiences about digital storytelling: the right audio treatment doesn’t simplify classics; it reveals their eternal vitality.

In scholarly admiration and shared audio delight,
Prof. Emily Chen