Review: AS YOU LIKE IT, Starring Harriet Walter, Theatre Royal Bath

With a hey and a ho, and a hey-nonny-no, life couldn't be sweeter in a stripped-down As You Like It, in the second chapter of the Ralph Fiennes/Theatre Royal Bath Season trio of plays.

Harriet Walter dazzles as melancholy courtier Jaques, Amber James steals the show with her cheeky and irrepressible Celia, comedian Dylan Moran's jester Touchstone is a rib-tickling revelation, and lovers Orlando (a spirited Charlie Rowe) and Rosalind (Dune's Gloria Obianyo) are slow to kick off, but then their romance blossoms brilliantly.

Equally brilliant is a simple set by Bob Crowley, comprised of video of a stag staring imploringly at the audience and projected trees onto screens depicting the Forest of Arden, where characters escape stifling conventions at court and discover a joyful Robin Hood-esque existence in the woods. No faffing about with scene changes and well-timed overlap of exits and entrances permits a constant flow, lending a youthful energy and pleasing rhythm to Fienne's fine production.

Shakespeare's comedy, where Rosalind and Orlando fall in love, but are thwarted by family feuding, leads to banishment for Rosalind who disguises herself as boy shepherd Ganymede. She's accompanied by her loyal cousin Celia and Touchstone, kitted out in multi-hued shirt and scarf. Rosalind coaxes Orlando into wooing her under the cover of curing him of his love for Rosalind and then finally reveals she's a woman, marrying Orlando in a group wedding.

As actor/director/manager of his small new company, Fiennes gets the actors to do their best work. When the exiled men gather round the campfire, we're there with them, feeling chilly and hungry. Shakespeare's verse zings out, aided by wonderful staging where everyone faces downstage and speaks to the audience.

Casting by Ginny Schiller is excellent and doubling up of parts feels natural. Patrick Robinson should be commended, in particular, for his roles as Duke Senior and his brother Duke Frederick.

Walter's Seven Ages of Man monologue emphasises doubling up of roles – "And one man in his time plays many parts". She delivers Jaques' famous words casually while eating an apple, which makes the words all the more poignant than if they'd been proclaimed grandly to the back of the circle.

I also love Fotini Dimou's costume design, all earthy tones of greens, browns and reds, with the odd humorous modern touch, such as a shepherd's Mountain Dude T-shirt and a nylon cross-body bag worn by shepherdess Phebe (played by a terrifically expressive Imogen Elliott, who got a lot of well-deserved laughs).

Fiennes lifts his entertaining As You Like It into the 21st century, not only with wardrobe choices and glimpses of iPhones and iPads, but with how he deals with gender fluidity and the way he makes the best of the often silly and annoying music in the play.

In the programme notes it's suggested that perhaps the comedy was an early attempt at a musical – with all its songs and a grand finale ­­– before anyone had written a musical. Instead of feeling chucked into the show willy-nilly, Fiennes evokes mood and group bonding in the musical interludes, led by talented singer/musician Nitai Levi as Amiens.

There's a good deal of group bonding in Fiennes' troupe, where small parts are as important as larger ones. This is RSC territory, with all the characters and the backstage team pulling together to create a first-class experience for all. Hey nonny-no, life couldn't be sweeter.

As You Like It runs at Theatre Royal Bath runs until 6 September