By David N. Dunkle for PennLive.com, 14 March 2015

In “Women Playing Hamlet,” a present-day actor named Jessica is having an identity crisis, brought on by her casting as Hamlet in a new production of the 400-year-old Shakespearean tragedy at Gamut Classic Theatre.

Is she up to it? Should she be — or is it better not to be — the Danish prince who wrestles endlessly with his conscience following the murder of his father the king at the hand of his uncle — and possibly with the complicity of his mother?

This wickedly clever new play from William Missouri Downs, dubbed “a comedy about a tragedy,” uses an all-woman cast to explore questions of courage and conscience in a modern setting, managing to both spoof Shakespeare and pay homage to him in a two-hour show that moves like lightning.

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