Word: hymen
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...farcical production of As You Like It. I had reviewed the show favorably--it seemed to poke fun at pastoral conventions no one today can stomach, in the same spirit Shakespeare had half-mocked them in his writing. It was a wild show, full of excesses, including a Hymen with four breasts and phalluses for hair, but it brought As You Like It to life on stage more fully than more cautious productions...
...apparition that haunts the final scene at the Loeb epitomizes his achievement. Modern directors of this play face an annoying problem--Shakespeare's inclusion of an actress representing Hymen to cement the multiple marriages at the end. Much of today's audience can't even identify which deity that is, and the idea of a nuptial goddess seems inapposite to this As You Like It's earthiness, anyway. Belgrader breathes coarse, jocular humor into the tired device, turning Hymen into an earth-mother who rises on an elevator, with four false breasts, giant phalluses sticking medusa-like from her head...