The first time I saw 'As You Like It' was on our very first visit to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1992 - a production directed by David Thacker, with Samantha Bond as Rosalind. I can still the remember the moment at the end when she stepped to the front of the stage to say "It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue ...". On Saturday we were back at the (new) RST to see Daniel Evans' brilliant new production of 'As You Like It'. Using an all male cast (which Shakespeare wrote for) strangely makes more sense of the gender-swapping plot (as it did in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men production of 'As You Like It', reviewed here in August 2022). Tony award-winner Jonathan Groff, is very impressive as Rosalind/Gannymede and Fisayo Akinade as Celia gives a wonderful comic performance. Tim Preston's Phoebe almost steals the show (blurting out "Gannymede, do you like my wedding dress - I made it myself!"). And it was lovely to see Gary Wilmot (who we saw in 'Anything Goes' at the Barbican, reviewed here in September 2021) making his RSC debut (playing both the Dukes), and RSC veteran Richard McCabe as a surprisingly playful melancholic Jaques. When the action shifts from the court to the countryside it becomes clear that the Forest of Arden has been relocated to Wales (and why not?) - with Anisha Fields' magnificent set bringing an enormous, and amazingly realistic, Welsh grassy hillside into the centre of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre: the reveal is a stunning moment. And the composer Theo Jamieson introduces a capella male voice choir harmony to Arden with a series of beautiful musical interludes (mostly sung in Welsh by the 'Arden 7'). It's a very enjoyable production - the best RSC show we have seen since Rupert Goold's amazing shipboard production of Hamlet (reviewed here in February 2025).
Wednesday, October 07, 2026
'The Woman in the Dunes' by Kobo Abe
7 October 2026
My introduction to Japanese literature was via David Mitchell's 2001 novel 'Number9Dream' - his homage to Haruki Murakami. This led me to the novels of Murakami, four of which I have written about here (starting with my favourite 'Kafka on the Shore', reviewed here in October 2006). Murakami's books usually start in a contemporary real-world Japan into which magical realism starts to intrude, leading us into a parallel fantasy world. I'm also a fan of the Japanese-British novelist, Kazuo Ishiguro - who I was lucky to see in conversation with David Mitchell at the Royal Festival Hall in 2016 (reviewed here in February 2016). Several of Ishiguro's novels have a surreal. dreamlike quality that reminds me of Murakami, particularly 'When We Were Orphans' and 'The Unconsoled'. More recently I enjoyed ‘Tokyo Express’ - a Japanese detective novel by Seichō Matsumoto, first published in 1958, and translated by Jesse Kirkwood in 2022 (reviewed here in June 2024) - a gripping tale, beautifully told, with a gentle Japanese politeness. I am very grateful to Geoff Crossick for extending my knowledge of Japanese literature by giving me a copy of the classic Japanese novel 'The Woman in the Dunes' by Kōbō Abe, originally published in 1962, translated into English by E. Dale Saunders in 1964 and adapted into a Cannes Festival Award-winning film by Hiroshi Teshigahara. 'The Woman in the Dunes' is a deeply strange, existential novel. "The man" is a school teacher from Tokyo who visits a coastal fishing village to collect insects. The villagers, whose homes are constantly on the verge of being destroyed by the advancing sand dunes, trap him and force him to help them in the Sisyphean task of shovelling endless amounts of sand. The grim reality of his sandy prison, the physical demands of the labour, his increasingly desperate attempts to escape and the horrible effects of the constantly flowing sand on the human body are told in painstaking detail. The contrast between the bizarre surrealism of the situation and the practical, precise description of it reminded me of Yann Martel's 2001 novel 'Life of Pi'. In its surreal examination of human existence 'The Woman in the Dunes' also made me think of 'Waiting for Godot' by Samuel Beckett (published in 1952), though the occasional bantering dialogue here is all in the man's head: he has very little conversation with "the woman" with whom he is incarcerated. 'The Woman in the Dunes' is fascinating, peculiar and enthralling but it's also quite an uncomfortable read, particularly in the way the man treats the woman and the introduction of sex into their relationship. The sand-strewn, surreal nightmare is a lens through which to examine questions of human existence and particular issues to do with class. But I think I probably missed other references and analogies and I was grateful for the introduction written by David Mitchell for the 2006 Penguin Classics edition (which you can read at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/oct/07/featuresreviews.guardianreview26).
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