TAMPA — LAB Theater Project will present “As We Like It” by Oded Gross. The production will run Sept. 17 through Oct. 4 in LAB’s at 812. E. Henderson Ave., Tampa.
Tickets are $28. Visit www.labtheaterproject.com.
Performances are Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m., with Sunday matinees at 3 p.m. The show will also be available on-demand, from Oct. 1-15. Audience members who purchase on-demand tickets will be emailed a link to the video site.
This 2026 Eugene O’Neil center semi-finalist play is at once suspenseful, heartbreaking, darkly funny, and fiercely theatrical. “As We Like It” explores the stories we create to endure the unbearable and the terrifying power of stories to heal, deceive, protect and destroy.
Gross, based in New Jersey, is an award-winning playwright with accolades from all over the country. His works have been produced throughout the United States, including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Idaho Shakespeare Festival; Great Lakes Theater in Cleveland, Ohio; and Boston Court in Pasadena, California.
LAB Theater’s production of “As We Like It” is directed by newcomer Roseanne Olszewski and features Tampa area actors Sophie Fisher, Rudy Gonzalez, Taylor Skolnick, Avry Eden, Jay Overlin, and Chase Tomberlin. Set and lighting design are by Owen Robertson, with sound design by Rick Anthony, and scenic art by M’Ria Swire. Set dressing and props are by Beth Robertson, and costume design is by Newt Rametta.
“This play was selected for our season because it speaks to our lives today despite its backdrop in the past,” said Robertson, LAB executive producer. “As a society, as a species, we know our world and how to process our world through story; that is the brilliance and voice of this play.”
In “As We Like It,” Rose and her family are fighting to survive. But Rose sees another world entirely: the enchanted Forest of Arden, where she is rehearsing Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” for the wedding of a Duke and his Fairy Queen. If the performance succeeds, Rose believes the Queen may return the son she lost. Her family reluctantly plays along, unsure whether Rose’s fantasy is a refuge — or a danger that could get them all killed. Then two wounded strangers stumble into their hiding place, and the fragile boundary between illusion and reality begins to collapse.
The inspiration for the play, according to Gross, came in the aftermath of Oct. 7, 2023, and his intense need to stop listening to all the noise in the aftermath. He needed to shut off the hateful rhetoric, unfollowing people, muting others. He looked to stories for comfort and avoided those that did not provide that. This retreat to stories for self-preservation became the spark of “As We Like It.”
LAB Theater Project is a professional, non-profit 501(c)3 company that exclusively produces new works. It was founded in 2015 dedicated to a “playwright first” vision, and has produced over 60 new works by local, national, and international playwrights. LAB’s mission also includes the growth and development of new theater artists in the Tampa Bay community.