3. As You Like It and Town and Country

Major public figures in conversation with Professor Emma Smith, explore how Shakespeare can help us resolve some challenging contemporary issues.

Emma Smith reflects on how Covid led people to move from the city to the country and on why some are now opting to return to the city.

With her international career as a star of TV, film and theatre, Fiona Shaw divides her time between New York, London, Sri Lanka and her native Cork. She and Emma share their thoughts on the transformative potential which Shakespeare’s Forest of Arden seems to provide in a play such as As You Like It.

Although the grass often appears to be greener in this so-called “green world”, they wonder why characters almost always return to the city in the end, and what this means particularly for women such as Rosalind, whose time in Arden has appeared to be so transformative.

With contributions from Professor Paul Prescott.

Producer: Beaty Rubens

Made to mark the 400th anniversary of the First Folio.

A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in May 2023.