Research into “As you like it”

William Shakespeare’s play “As you like it” is a pastoral comedy which presents to the audience the confusion of love, identity, and the difference between idealistic and realistic life in the forest. Its story follows the heroine Rosalind as she is banished from her uncle's court and flees accompanied by her cousin Celia and Touchstone the court jester, to find safety and eventually, love, in the Forest of Arden. The play is most famous for the often quoted speech, "All the world's a stage", and is the origin of the phrase "too much of a good thing". The play’s themes are miss identities, the delights of love and the confrontation of the human experience combined with city life versus country life. It finishes with four weddings and the god of marriage (Hymen) falling from the roof to give its blessing to the many loves.   

The play would have been performed in the round because Shakespeare’s theatre, The Globe, was built for audiences to see from all sides.