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In a twist on Shakespearean-era casting, The Sting & Honey Company's premiere of "The King's Men" features an all-female cast playing both male and female characters.
It's opened up possibilities for a handful of Utah actors. "I've always focused on parts I would be right for," says Susanna Florence, who is playing William Shakespeare, a character who she says was never, ever on her radar. "And then I thought about male actors, who a long time ago had their sights on all of the roles."
The production of playwright and director Javen Tanner's play isn't about gender-blind casting, which has become more common recently on local stages, with recent "Hamlet" productions featuring female casts at Southern Utah University and the University of Utah. In another example, this spring's Utah Shakespeare Festival's Shakespeare-in-the-Schools education tour featured Allie Babich in the title role.
Instead, in "The King's Men" the idea of gender — and more significantly, how men and women connect — is the driving inspiration of Tanner's backstage play, which explores the strained marriage of Shakespeare with his wife, Anne Hathaway, as their daughter Susanna becomes engaged.
In marketing the play, Tanner described it this way: "The text of the play explores men's perceptions of women through men who play female characters. But the play itself does this by having women play the men who play the women. So the rehearsal process will be an exploration of how a particular group of actresses portray men who are portraying women."
"The King's Men" is set in 1603, after Queen Elizabeth's death at a time when Shakespeare and his contemporaries — in a most unusual historical twist — were getting used to living under King James' rule, the first time ever in their lifetimes that the country had been ruled by a man. Under royal order, Shakespeare's popular theater company, The Lord Chamberlain's Men, was transformed into The King's Men.
"I was thinking about the way people perceive the women in Shakespeare's plays, how they know intellectually that Shakespeare's women were played by men, but they rarely make the connection when they look at the way [the characters] were used," Tanner says.
For example, young male actors were often cast as female characters, and they might not have been experienced enough actors to deserve rafter-rattling final scene speeches. Perhaps the way Shakespeare's women disappear in final scenes might not have been just the sexism of the age but also practical casting considerations, Tanner says.
In writing the play, he considered the physical characteristics male actors exaggerate when playing a woman, as well as the reverse. His actors aren't "manning it up" or crotch-grabbing, but instead are focusing on shifting their movements as they walk and sit. "I want the fact that there are women playing these roles to ignite ideas in people about what they're saying and what it means," he says. "And I believe that's what happened when people watched men play Shakespeare's women."
While the play wasn't intended as a feminist statement, Tanner says, its themes should resonate with contemporary debates about gender roles. One of Shakespeare's lines, in response to a young actor's audition performance: "You see, you're standing there, a man dressed as a man, acting like a man. But you should be a man dressed as a woman, acting like a woman dressed as a man, acting like a woman."
Much of the play is rooted in history, but Tanner also claimed dramatic license, borrowing Shakespearean tropes of appearances by ghosts. He gave himself the rather audacious task of writing a love scene between the Bard and his dead, beloved patron, Queen Elizabeth. She asks him to write a play for her; Shakespeare, at first, refuses.
Playing a love scene with a ghost, particularly a royal one, played by another female actor, is a bit of a twist, Florence says with a laugh. "Love scenes are always a little tricky, even if it's a man. I laugh all the time about the things I do for my job."
In another dramatically audacious move, in the play's third act, Tanner writes about Shakespeare and his colleagues, who are rehearsing his new play called "Queen Elizabeth."
Tanner felt he had written himself into a corner once he realized he would have to write Shakespeare-esque verse, which led him to stop working on the script for several weeks. But then he realized theatergoers would be able to suspend their disbelief if they trusted the story. He even wrote in a joke at his own expense: "This is not your normal fare, old friend," an actor tells Shakespeare as they're rehearsing the Queen Elizabeth play.
The play is part of what Tanner envisions as a trilogy, all of which could be considered a love letter to Shakespeare's works, and his company's production of "The King's Men" is timed to mark worldwide celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the playwright's death.
As for Florence, the play offers an interestingly layered look at gender and relationships. "It's complex," she says. "It's not just that we're wearing pants. All the layers mirror themselves. It's really lovely."
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Putting a ring on 'All the King's (Wo)Men"
Sting and Honey Company is producing "The King's Men," the premiere of artistic director Javen Tanner's original play about gender issues in Shakespeare's — and our — time, featuring nine female actors playing male and female parts. Tanner directs.
Cast • Susanna Florence as Shakespeare, Kathryn Atwood as Queen Elizabeth, Colleen Baum as Anne Hathaway, Susan Barry as Richard Burbage, Nova Calverly as John Heminges, Ali Kinkade as Susanna Shakespeare, Michelle Thompson as Henry Condell, Carlie Young as Edward and Hannah Minshew as Robert
When • Friday-Saturday, Sept. 30-Oct. 15, 7:30 p.m.; 2 p.m. Saturday matinees
Tickets • $18 (plus ticket fees) at arttix.org or at the door
Where • Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center's Black Box Theatre, 138 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City