Gender-bending performance of theatre classic comes to Calgary

You've probably never seen Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead done quite like this.

For the latest Alberta Theatre Projects season, the play will take a gender-bending approach with two female leads.

The story is a twist on Shakespeare's classic, Hamlet, and won a Tony award for best play when it premiered 50 years ago.

The Calgary Eye Opener theatre reviewer Jonathan Love spoke with host David Gray. This is an edited version of that conversation.

Q: What is this play about and who is in it?

A: Julie Orton plays Guildenstern, Myla Southward plays Rosencrantz — or is it the other way around? Truly it doesn't matter, both were fabulous as these hapless pals of the Danish prince who have been summoned to find out what's wrong with Hamlet. For those who don't know, the story is Hamlet as told by two of the smallest characters in the play. So it's a shift in perspective. It's kind of like The Lion King as told by Timon and Pumbaa with a little less Hakuna Matata and a little more don't know who we are.

Q: Did the gender role reversal change the play?

A: Yes and no. It's one of my favourite plays. I had never seen it with women in the lead roles and thought that brought different shades of colour to the canvass for sure. I think it's more about the chemistry of the performers and the choices they make when it comes to roles like these. You need to get the most talented actors to play them — and in this case, they cast it beautifully.

Q: What's the style of the show?

A: They're billing it as Monty Python meets Shakespeare and it couldn't be more correct. From absurdist existential minimalism to full-on-farce, they've got a lot of ground to cover, and it does so with a masterful command of the text and subtext mixed with essential comic timing.

Along with this unlucky pair and the Danish court, they have this travelling band of tragedians… all basically looking for direction and led by the incomparable Christopher Hunt as The Player.

Christopher Hunt is outstanding. Not only does he have some of the best lines in the show — "we are actors, we're the opposite of people" — but watching him unfold himself out of a box and take the stage is nothing short of spectacular. He sings, plays mandolin and grounds the cast. The marvel about adding Chris to a scene is that under his influence, every scene and every player in it becomes better. In my opinion, if he's not winning awards for this, something's wrong with the system.

Q: It's not just an ATP show. This is a co-production, correct?

A: It is, and it's also the first show in the Shakespeare Company and Hit and Myth Productions' season. They have a marvelously sustainable model this year, announcing that they'll be doing three productions of variations of Hamlet — partnering with ATP, Vertigo and One Yellow Rabbit. I think this is a brilliant move by artistic director Haysam Kadri. The innovations that are being made aren't just the kind of cross-casting opportunities to showcase our best players, but the creative partnerships that are emerging — ostensibly for survival — are producing some amazing cross-pollination opportunities of artistic experience and audiences in the city.

With files from the Calgary Eyeopener.