As We Like It by Oded Gross

As We Like It follows the story of a woman named Rose, who tries to motivate her family to rehearse in the serenity and privacy of the woods a production of Shakespeare's As You Like It to be performed at the wedding of the Duke and his betrothed, the Fairy Queen. The only problem is there is no Fairy Queen. There is no Duke. They are not in a serene forest. This Midsummer Night's / As You Like It delusion is Rose's shield against a brutal reality she doesn't wish to confront — she and her family are in hiding from the Nazis in the grim forests of Poland during World War 2. Her family is not sure how to snap Rose out of her psychosis and worry of the danger she puts them all in by not acknowledging the realities and dangers of the world around them.

The play explores the classical theme of illusion as refuge, interrogating whether stories serve as salvation or dangerous denial. Drawing from Shakespeare’s use of forest exile as a space for transformation, As We Like It weaponizes that motif to examine the cost of escapism in times of horror. It asks: When do the lies we tell ourselves serve us and when do they threaten everything simply to make the world… As We Like It??

Thursday evening's performance starts at 7:30pm with live music beginning at 6:30pm