Dr. Ralph's Brief: Look About You

TEN THINGS YOU MIGHT LIKE TO KNOW:

1. When was the play first performed?
    1595.

2. Where was the play first performed?
    At the Rose by the Lord Admiral’s Men, the chief competitors to the Lord Chamberlain’s
    Men, Shakespeare’s company.

3. Who wrote it?
    We don’t know.

4. How is this anonymous playwright like Shakespeare?
    He likes the idea of disguise, of actors playing characters who themselves play
    parts (Rosalind, Henry V, Edmund, Petruchio, Viola).

5. How is this anonymous playwright unlike Shakespeare?
    When it comes to disguise, one might argue that the playwright used too much
    of a good thing. No other play of the period has so much disguise in it. In fact,
    it may be that the play was also known as “Disguises.” Where Shakespeare’s
    plays might have two or three characters in disguise, all but two of the major
    characters in Look About You appear disguised, and Skinke has eight different
    disguises. So, one thing to watch for in this Actors Renaissance Season production
    is how the company handles all this convention.

6. What do scholars think about this play?
    Perhaps because the play has not appeared on a professional stage for four
    centuries, scholars have had little to say about the play as a play. Interest has
    largely been in its handling of the Robin Hood material, and you can read a fine
    piece on that subject by Carole Levin in ASC’s online magazine, The Playhouse
    Insider.

7. Is there any controversy surrounding the work?
    Not really. Obviously the question of authorship spars speculation, but ??????

8. What characters should I especially look for?
    The play’s great master of disguise is Skinke, and how can you not pay attention
    to character named “Skinke”? The play is most famous for having Robin Hood
    in it, but the Robin Hood in this play is a far cry from Errol Flynn or even
    Russell Crowe.

9. What scenes should I especially look for?
    If you like the play’s marathon disguising, then you’ll especially enjoy the scene
    with two different characters disguised as the same hermit. This play also shares
    with Gary Taylor’s reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Cardenio the distinction of
    an onstage game of bowls.

10. What is the language like?
      The language is easy to understand. The verse is primarily iambic pentameter,
      mostly end-stopped (thoughts usually conclude at the end of a line) with intermittent
      rhyme.

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