The growth of Pittsburgh theater means I don't get out to the suburban theaters as much as I used to -- fortunately they're well served by Kate Luce Angell -- but I'm glad I went to see "As You Like It" at Little Lake.

Not that it's a complete success, but it's full of life and director Art DeConciliis' good ideas. Shakespeare puts such huge demands on actors, it is bracing to see it done with such energy and care.

This is the comedy where Rosalind escapes a vindictive usurper and takes refuge in the bucolic Forest of Arden with her friends and the rightful duke. There, disguised as a boy, she gets to test her would-be love, Orlando.

DeConsiliis' insight is that all the characters -- even the evil ones, eventually -- are in love with dropping out and finding themselves. So he and his costumers dress the bad duke's court in suits (even Touchstone first appears looking like a floorwalker, not the jester he is) and then imagine golden Arden as Haight Ashbury and dress everyone in High Colorful Hippy.

It's very pretty. But they carry it so far that even the serious shepherd, Corin, is in Full Hippy, which obscures the important distinction between the aristocrats in exile and the working foresters. There's a further problem: How can Rosalind disguise herself as a man in a unisex clothing style?

But the modern setting also pays off, never more than in the funny touch of turning the mysterious figure of Hymen into an unctuous wedding emcee.

Unfortunately, there are black-outs between scenes, whereas Shakespeare is usually best played with one scene segueing into the next. Or does DeConciliis think the black-outs are necessary signals to an audience that might not separate one scene from another? I say they hurt momentum.

But they do give time for incidental music, which is of a piece with the costuming: for example, "Satisfaction" (I can't get no) and "Mellow Yellow." (Isn't there a Donovan version of the play's "Under the Greenwood Tree" that would have fit, too?) In general, the cast is at its best in song, aided by the fine voice and guitar of Jesse Warnick's Amiens.

The central lovers, Jena Oberg's Rosalind and Brandon Pollak's Orlando, are less distinctive than some in the colorful supporting cast. I never felt any strong attraction between them. He starts out so irascible and insolent I almost sided with his bad brother, Oliver (Matt Marceau); Pollak is best when simplest.

The model of that is Buddy Wickerham's simple, believable Silvius (far better than his caricature LeBeau). Philip Bower is strong as the bad duke but pretty silly as Corin. There's a better Corin in Bill Bennett, whose well-spoken but diffident good duke is hardly ducal.

The two famous comic roles are Touchstone and the melancholy philosopher, Jacques. The appealing and capable Gregory Caridi hasn't settled on a character for Touchstone (wag? lecher? pal? show-off?), and Warren Ashburn's Jacques seems less melancholy than fastidiously in command. His "all the word's a stage" comes out self-satisfied and cute, like a party turn; what's the emotional truth of that?

Patricia Cena Samreny is a good actress, but she seems wary of Audrey's sluttishness, which is, after all, why Touchstone pursues her. Anna McGee is a pleasing Celia, with more believable rapport with Rosalind than Orlando. But what's with one-person Twister? Is that a metaphor?

As all these names suggest, this is a big, hard-working cast, further evidence of the dedication with which Little Lake has tackled such a demanding play. By the way, I'm a connoisseur of program notes, and nothing in the show is better than Bennett's very graceful essay.