'More Than Common Tall': Measuring up to the 'Real' Rosalind in Australia

Abstract

There is no record of performance history for 'As You Like It' prior to the eighteenth century. Nevertheless, critical reviews of contemporary productions trade persistently in the notion of a 'real' Rosalind by whose standards all Rosalinds are to be measured. In Australia this phenomenon is further exaggerated by a perceived distance from the authoritative source of the play. Beginning with a study of the nineteenth century Australian performer, Essie Jenyns, this essay explores the peculiar tenacity of the myth of the real Rosalind, and discusses how three modern Australian Rosalinds have, through their habitation of the role, challenged the expectations which usually attend it.