Review of Woman Playing Hamlet. By Sharon Reichert

Leduc Drama Society presents Women Playing Hamlet
Quirky comedy an entertaining look at Shakespeare’s most famous protagonist
Review by Sharon Reichert
To be or not to be … heading to Maclab Theatre for the Performing Arts to catch Leduc Drama Society’s latest offering, Women Playing Hamlet.
As the title suggests, the players are all women and they are an amazingly talented bunch of actresses!
The story centers around Jessica, played by Rachel Whipple, who was thrilled to be given the title role in a New York production of Hamlet, but suddenly finds herself questioning, not only her ability to take on such an iconic role, but everything about her life! Along the way, Jessica gets advice – both welcome and unwelcome – from a whole host of crazy characters, including her acting coach, her best (only?) friend, her dead father, a New York bartender and Patrick Stewart.
For director Peter Dickhout, the biggest challenge in bringing this quirky, entertaining story to the stage was dispersing 19 very diverse roles among eight gifted actresses. Did I mention that many of these 19 characters are NOT female?
Whipple does a masterful job playing Jessica, whose emotions run the gamut from despair to excitement to horror to delight and back again several times. Along the way, we learn that she may have way more in common with Hamlet than she ever realized!
Kirsten Milner plays Jessica’s acting coach, who is by turns a wonderful mentor and a borderline abusive task master.
Stacey Bradley-Wells, Brittany Boots Currie, Terri English, Annie Randall, Susanne Ritchie and Rebekah Scheffelmaier each play at least two characters, meaning quick costume changes, adding and removing wigs and facial hair and changing accents on the fly.
Highlights of the show include a musical grave digger, a cynical bartender, a drunken autograph seeker and a senile soap opera actress.
This show is quite entertaining, very funny, sometimes touching and often educational! (Did you know that Shakespeare is indirectly responsible for the release of a certain bird species in North America?)
Best of all, you can tell that the cast and crew had a great time putting this show together. They ‘enthusiastically’ invite you all to join them in their ‘parallel ethosphere’ for an evening.
To be or not to be? Really, the only question you need to consider is which night works best for you? The play opens Friday, May 10, with further shows on May 11, 12 (matinee), 16, 17 & 18.