History Theatre / AsYouLikeIt

* ComicRolePlay: Orlando practice his declaration of love to Rosalind on Ganymede, who is (of course) Rosalind in disguise.

* HeroesWantRedheads: In the 2006 film adaption, Orlando falls for Rosalind who is played by Creator/BryceDallasHoward.

* AdaptationExpansion: Of Thomas Lodge's novella ''Rosalynde'', which contained the plot and most of the main characters, albeit with different names. Touchstone, Jaques and Audrey were all created by Shakespeare himself, as was the semi-subplot involving them.

** Averted with [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan Rosalind and Orlando's relationship.]] Orlando is a sweetheart, and Rosalind falls head over heels in love with him pretty darn quickly.

* GhibliHills

* HalfwayPlotSwitch: For the first act, you have quite a serious plot about a young man domineered by his villanous brother and a fair lady separated from her dad by her uncle; that gets fastly forgotten when all the main characters arrive the forest, where they play develops into a light pastoral comedy.

** Toyed with when it comes to Rosalind and Orlando; they're both fairly smitten the first time they meet, but she feels the need to test the truth of his feelings with an elaborate deception.

* OneSteveLimit: Avoided-- Oliver the brother and Oliver the priest; melancholy Jaques and Orlando's brother Jaques.
* OnlySaneMan: Oliver Mar-text, the country priest, comes off this way, although he only has one appearance and very few lines. He provides the punchline at the end of the scene when he's all set to marry Touchstone and Audrey, but they decide to ditch him (on Jaques' advice) and exit the scene singing and dancing:

* StatuesqueStunner: Rosalind chooses a male disguise because she’s tall for a woman, and Orlando certainly thinks she’s beautiful.

* TriangRelations: Orlando and Rosalind are in love, but Rosalind is [[WholesomeCrossdresser pretending to be a boy]], and Phoebe [[SweetOnPollyOliver has a crush on said boy]], and Silvius is in love with ''her''... Resolved when Rosalind reveals herself to be a girl.

* SacredHospitality: While in Arden, a starving Orlando ends up holding up Duke Senior and his retinue a knifepoint for some of their food. Duke Senior is more than happy to invite Orlando to share dinner with him, which confuses Orlando at first.

* GrumpyBear: Jaques is a pre-Nietzsche NietzscheWannabe stuck in a pastoral comedy.

* NiceMeanAndInbetween: The three sons of Rowland de Bois, in order of appearance: Orlando (nice), Oliver (mean) and Jacques (in-between), the latter by default simply because we don't find out much about him.

* HijackedByJesus: The story is set in a time and place where Greek or Roman Religion is dominant, but the religion seems very like Christianity in 16th Century England

* MisplacedWildlife: Or lions (unless it is an asiatic Lion or simply escaped from a zoo or menagerie).

* MisplacedWildlife: Or lions.

* HeroesWantRedheads: In the 2006 adaption directed by Creator/KennethBranagh, Orlando falls for Rosalind who is played by Creator/BryceDallasHoward

* TheJester: Touchstone. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Jaques when he reveals that he plans on becoming "a fool" as well--he'd ''love'' to be able to criticize everyone and everything without retribution!

The play has been adapted on film by Sir Creator/LaurenceOlivier in 1936 (it was his first Shakespeare film adaptation) and another film was made by Creator/KennethBranagh, which reset the play in Meiji Japan.

* RagsToRoyalty
* RecursiveCrossdressing

** Ganymede, Rosalind's name when she was disguised as a man, was the name of {{ClassicalMythology Zeus'}} male lover. It was basically the Renaissance equivalent of {{uke}}.

* PainfulRhyme: InUniverse. Some of Orlando's poems have to use a long ''i'' in Rosalind to make the rhymes work, which Touchstone and Celia scoff at.

Eventually, Frederick becomes agitated with Rosalind, and she escapes to the woods with Celia and the court clown, Touchstone. To protect themselves, they don disguises-- Celia dresses as a woman called Aliena, and Rosalind pretends to be a man named Ganymede. They meet up with the servants of the true Duke (including a very depressed and depressing man called Jaques), who takes them in.