Wellington Fringe 2026

As You Like It

The Midsummer Botanicals

Genre: Classical and Shakespeare, Comedy, Family

Venue: Aro Valley Park

Festival: Wellington Fringe

Low Down

Review

Once upon a time, in the not so dim and distant past, Wellington used to experience the joys of an annual outdoor Shakespeare performance.  However, this all stopped rather abruptly in 2023, threatening to starve the city of the joys of the Bard.  But this year, newly formed troupe The Midsummer Botanicals have galloped in from stage right to deliver one of Shakespeare’s most vibrant comedies, As You Like It, in the “Forest of Arden” that is Aro Valley Park, just up from Wellington’s CBD.

Promising us “a sun-soaked celebration of laughter” was always going to be something of a challenge given the city’s notoriously capricious climate (one performance has already hit the skids due to a tempest) but this resilient and determined troupe of Wellingtonians were clearly used to performing in the brisk breeze (aka howling gale) that greeted the opening night, with its concomitant challenges in terms of audibility.  They also dealt adroitly with noises off extempore, principally from the traffic that was inconsiderate enough to be trundling up and down nearby Aro Street during the performance, delivering a show that was full of gusto, thigh slapping, clowning, fighting and energy.  And the odd soliloquy of course.

The plot?  Come on, come on, now.  Everyone knows the plot, surely?  It’s a four hundred year old Shakespearian romp, for heavens’ sake!  OK, OK, here we go…….

A girl has the hots for a strapping young man, who just happens to have inherited a sizeable estate from his father.  She decides that the best way to woo her swain is to disguise herself as a man so that she can extol to him her virtues and see if he’ll take the bait.  Why do things simply if you can complicate it a bit?

Meantime, her father, Duke Senior, has been usurped by his brother (nothing ever changes with royalty, does it?) and banished to the forest of Arden (or a few leafy bushes in Aro Valley Park in this case), leaving her to the tyrannies of the French Court with only her cousin Celia (daughter of said banishing Duke) for company.

Still with me?  Good.  You just need to throw in a miscellany of courtiers, oddballs and jesters and you’ve the perfect recipe for a bawdy romp which ends up, eventually, with everyone happily married to the suitor of their choice.  Well, almost everyone.

Aro Valley Park provides an interesting, natural setting for this performance, which was costumed to place it roughly in the late 16^th/early 17^th century. The audience parked its collective bottoms on the banking leading up from a broad expanse of grass, where three brightly patterned tents, magnificently created from erstwhile duvet covers, acted as entrances, exits, changing rooms and prop stores.

Pre-show, the audience is invited to participate in a selection of games played in Shakespeare’s day which had the dual effect of breaking down that fourth wall as well as keeping people entertained whilst the stragglers sorted out their blankets, picnic hampers and other accoutrements required for an evening’s outdoor entertainment.

That completed, the show gets underway with gusto and a good old-fashioned Shakespearian dance, with live accompaniment from, ‘erm, a saxophone which of course hadn’t quite been invented in this period setting but, hey, who cares – that’s artistic license for you.

Enter Orlando (the impressive Christian Harris), dashing, commanding and debonair, to set the plot rolling.  And roll it does, the many scenes segueing seamlessly with short musical stings (from said sax) or the simple entry of actors for the next instalment of the play.  The universally strong cast of eleven’s collective energy ensures that story and humour flow in equal measure.  Their vocal projection is well up to the task of dealing with a large outdoor space; stage width was around thirty metres, stage depth (which stretched to the back of the audience and beyond) a similar distance.  And their confidence to deal with the unexpected was impressive, the merest twitch of an eyebrow at a noisy passing vehicle being sufficient to raise laughter from an audience quite prepared to roll with whatever was put in front of them.

This being a small cast with a large number of parts to cover rendered opportunities for multi-role playing with Tadhg Mackay wringing every nuance from his parts as Charles, Amiens and Silvius.  Edie Moore was similarly impressive as Celia/Aliena and Katy Comar discharged her various roles of Lord, Duke Senior (the banished one) and William with aplomb.

But two actors really stood out.  Ralph Johnson was wickedly humorous and unctuous as Adam and effected an amazing transformation into the seductive Audrey, complete with flowing wig, flowing dress and flowing just about everything else.

Then there was the richly talented Anna Barker who combined the roles of Duke Frederick and Phoebe.  Duke Frederick is often played as hard and vindictive.  Barker flipped that on its head, with an effete performance that somehow combined humour with a Machiavellian undercurrent that left no doubt as to who was in charge.  Her metamorphosis into Phoebe, though, was staggering, with its physicality, unfettered lechering and wanton debauchery leaving at least this member of the audience in stitches of laughter.  Characterisation of the highest order on both counts.

Zoe Claire-Harris carried off the central role of Rosalind (and Ganymede) with poise and precision and Brendan West as Touchstone stole just about every scene he appeared in, save those where he was twinned with and “upstaged” by the flamboyant (in both dress and delivery) Chris O’Grady as Jaques.

Eli Hancock’s direction and production was assured and Salome Neely’s costuming exquisite (and they also found the time to pop onto the stage to cover Oliver, Le Beau and Corin).

This all added up to what was a creatively staged and consummately delivered piece of theatre which had the audience engaged and involved throughout.  Top class acting, tight direction, a creatively edited script and the simple evident joy of everyone on stage made this an evening that will live long in the memory, and for all the right reasons.  Highly recommended.

Published February 16, 2026 by Tim Wilcock