For those unacquainted with William Shakespeare’s work, there may be the notion that his work is stuffy or old-fashioned, but understanding the Bard’s bawdy body of work proves that William Shakespeare was anything but square. The plethora of dick jokes aside, Shakespeare’s subversive works comment on gender, especially through cross-dressing, further complicated by the fact only men were allowed to be actors during the Elizabethan period. So, gender-swapping roles is nothing new; in fact, I’m sure Shakespeare would be excited about how his works are interpreted today.

Shakespeare’s plays were performed for the common folk, and today we see that tradition continued at the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, the longest-running free, non-ticketed Shakespeare Festival in the country. Now in its 65th season, the festival continues to push the boundaries by featuring a diverse cast of actors, including queer and non-binary people. This year is especially exciting with the casting of non-binary actor Mollie Murk in the lead role of Hamlet. 

Mollie Murk, photo by Zachary Burrell.

Murk has been a lead player in the company for several years, playing such starring roles as Lady Macbeth and Viola in Twelfth Night. Now, Murk is excited to be playing a dream role and one of the most complex in the Shakespearean canon. Murk expresses that, “Hamlet, or a lot my dream roles, would kind of necessitate a strong shift in terms of how professional Shakespeare companies cast their shows. And I think there can be this false impression that theater is so gay or so progressive, and it is sometimes… I find especially at Shakespeare companies, there can often be a sort of like unwillingness to take things into an overtly queer place, be that intentionally or unintentionally.”

Luckily, Kentucky Shakespeare doesn’t shy away from telling old stories in a new way, and as a very community-minded organization, gender-bent casting reflects not only the actors on stage, but the patrons in the audience.

Mollie Murk in Shakespeare & Company’s production of Macbeth playing the titular role. Photo by: Mac MacDaniel.

Director Amy Attaway has had the idea to play Hamlet as a woman for a long time. Setting Hamlet in the 1960s, a time of strong generational divide, the players will explore the relationship between the old guard and the young at a time when women were coming into power. Changing Hamlet from the traditional “emo sad boy” to a woman also allows the character’s arc to include discovering her gender while pursuing a lesbian relationship with Ophelia. The show will be the familiar Hamlet to anyone who knows it (with pronouns simply changed to “she” or “lord” to “lady”), but this new casting will allow the text to be open to different interpretations—perhaps illuminating some big moments in a new way.

Murk explains that in this production, Hamlet will be “a person who, at the beginning of the play, is actually really trying to fit this mold of what it means to be a woman at this time, and especially what it means to be a woman who’s part of the royal family. So the expectation is conformity.” As opposed to playing Hamlet simply as a man, or as someone whose gender queerness is accepted, the play will begin with Hamlet in a 60s cocktail dress, but as the play progresses and Hamlet goes “mad”, she will start “wearing pants, running around, doing whatever she likes.” Murk asserts that “creating obstacles [like this] feels really truthful to what we all go through sometimes and the experience of being like, ‘No, you’re supposed to wear this’.”

While LGBT+ people have existed since the beginning of time (including Shakespeare’s bisexual romps), this production of Hamlet includes the first queer relationship on Kentucky Shakespeare Festival’s stage, and the only one of 32 professional productions where Murk also gets to portray a gay relationship. 

Hamlet runs select nights from June 19 through July 26—check the calendar and support queer theatre!