"More Villain Than Thou?": An Interview with Will Cespedes (Oliver)!

CSC: How has the rehearsal process been going?

Will Cespedes: The most interesting aspect of the rehearsal process over the past month and half has been how the character of Oliver has changed. Originally James, our director, and I saw Oliver as a very weak man. But it wasn’t till we approached the final weeks that we discovered that Oliver truly hates his Orlando and Duke Fredrick’s line “More villain thou”, is referencing Oliver’s true self. So he is a plotting villain and would fight Orlando and does. But, Oliver doesn’t want anyone to know that he killed his own brother, since that would look bad. Much like Iago in Othelllo. Where this hate comes from is eternally a mystery with most of Shakespeare’s Villains. In the end, when working on a character of Shakespeare, you have to look to what the character says when he is alone.

Oliver says “[Orlando] is in so much of the heart of the world that I [Oliver] am all together misprized.” Oliver is jealous of how much everyone loves Orlando. And we see that clearly Rosalind is no exception. That’s why Oliver doesn’t allow Orlando to be educated. He is too smart for his own good. Oliver is the type of guy who buys his friends and can’t make them on his own. He always wins and gets what he wants but by “underhanded means”. And the day comes when his younger brother beats him up and shames him. There is no way Oliver could live with a younger brother like that. And so that’s how the play starts and hence the building blocks for the character of Oliver.

CSC: What's do you love about the play AS YOU LIKE IT?

WC: AS YOU LIKE IT for me is a play about love and finding one’s true home and peace. No one ever mentions the word Mother in the play. But I think the whole play is about returning to Mother Earth or Mother Nature. Two brother’s fight to the point of banishment and almost killing each other. And it isn’t until the pairs; Orlando and Oliver, Duke Senior and Duke Frederick, return to Mother Nature, the Forest of Arden, do they find peace and love. The irony of the play is that “all things were savage” in the court. But as Orlando realizes Mother Nature, the Forest of Arden, brings out the best in people.

The characters are returning to their roots as human beings having a nurtured environment to without walls or ceilings or constrictions of choice. In terms of my character, Oliver, he finds that the forest is so wonderful and Alena (Celia in disguise) so lovely that he is willing to “live and die” in the forest as a shepherd. Jaques admires touchstone wishing “he were a fool”. The is play confirms how we forget the beauty of Nature and the love we find in the simplicity of life.