An Appealing Taheri Energizes ‘As You Like It’

“As You Like It” may be a trifle when weighed against much in Shakespeare’s library, but it’s a trifle with one of his most engaging comic heroines.

That would be Rosalind, the amorous character nobody ever seems to mind spending a couple of hours with in the theater. Shakespeare Orange County has an appealing one in Elizabeth Taheri, who steadies an uneven staging with a mix of glee and guile.

Everything starts slowly in this tale of the smitten lady and her swooning target, Orlando. Director Carl Reggiardo sets a leisurely pace as characters are introduced and we learn of the intrigue that forces Rosalind from her father’s castle to hide--dressed as a boy--in the forest. Except for a brief tussling scene that smacks of a Worldwide Wrestling Federation match, it’s pretty ho-hum; the action unfolds too deliberately.

But once she’s in Arden’s great outdoors, Taheri is released. This is an actress who needs room to move and she does, with amusing turns that seem to energize those around her. David Denman’s Orlando, for one, gets better the more he interacts with Taheri.

The role isn’t much more than a foil for Rosalind and her ticklish masquerade, but Denman, who is plodding early on, becomes rather likable as his confusion and longing grow. Taheri tiptoes around him, and the line that separates masculinity from femininity, and Denman tries to keep in step.

Not all the players are able to do so. Raymond Lynch as the usurping Duke comes across as a pale Snidely Whiplash; you keep waiting for him to twirl his mustache. And Trygve Carl Bundgaard as Oliver, Orlando’s troublesome brother, is too colorless to make an impact. Unfortunately, the further down you go in support, the more uncertainty there is, which tends to tug at any rising momentum.

Still, the troupe’s veteran actors, most notably Michael Nehring as Touchstone and Daniel Bryan Cartmell as Jaques, provide solid performances.

Nehring has made a Shakespeare Orange County career of incarnating the odd and the bawdy, and he returns to form with Shakespeare’s clown. He puts his jester’s face to good use and tosses in more than a few props for randy effect. As for Cartmell, his confidence gives extra bite to the mocking Jaques.

The look of this “As You Like It” is satisfying enough, with a raised walkway on the castle facade providing the setting for a few dramatic and funny passages. But designer Craig Brown really depends on David Palmer’s lighting when all venture into the forest. Everything becomes more shadowy and vague, suggesting that Arden is indeed a place where things are not always as they seem.

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“As You Like It,” presented by Shakespeare Orange County at the Waltmar Theatre, 301 E. Palm St., Orange, on the Chapman University campus. Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends Aug. 11. $25. (714) 744-7016.