Gender Play Or, What You Will Co-Created by Will Wilhelm and Erin Murray Directed by Emily Tarquin
Review by Kate Barry
Entire contents are copyright @2025 by Kate Barry. All rights reserved.
Step inside the Victor Jory theatre and you quickly notice Gender Play Or, What You Will is its own vibe. Greeted by a message to “adorn thyself” with accessories of all shapes and styles, entering the theater is like walking into the comforts of a long time friend’s living room. Twinkling lights, a purple altar with plenty of doors and candles provide a nurturing and mystical space for William Shakespeare to be summoned and his works to be explored and revitalized.
Creator and performer, Will Wilhelm holds the audience in the palm of their hand from the start. A party host of sorts, they bring an energy that is both welcoming and irresistible. Their performance is rooted in personal truths and vulnerability as they interpret and break open new understandings of characters made for “cis white men and grade schoolers.” Their approach to Hamlet, Juliet and Helena is honest and fearless. They take deep plunges into Shakespeare’s canon with a presentation that is both fun and educational while providing experiential evidence as well.
Combining elements of their own transgender identity and the queer topics within Shakespeare’s work, the play focuses on the likes of King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, Henry V, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. With excellent elocution and diction, Wilhelm’s performances of Juliet’s “my beauty is as boundless as the sea” becomes a mantra of self love. They further explore the tragedy of Shakespeare’s young lover’s stifled upbringing in a patriarchal society. Their variation of Helena’s “call you me fair” speech is sexually frustrated and angst ridden to spare. While most agree that the lovers in Midsummer grow and change through their shenanigans in the woods, Wilhelm points out that it is Helena who changes least with the most to gain.
As Wilhelm effortlessly moves through Shakespeare’s plays in the guise of a séance, they touch on the most notable tragedies, Hamlet and Macbeth. With Lady Macbeth’s “unsex me” speech, Wilhelm voraciously provides a context of gender as prison and the power just beyond their grasp. Notably, Wilhelm’s take on “to be or not to be” is quite stirring. Aligned with Wilhelm’s own journey as a “gender traitor,” the text elevates into a coming out story; only instead of choosing one way or another, they choose a completely new path instead.
A play about Shakespeare would not be complete without the sonnets. Wilhelm takes this into consideration as they discuss the extramarital love life Shakespeare had. Evident in the sonnets, especially sonnet 18, Wilheim makes the case that Shakespeare’s relationship with his pupil Henry was affectionate and queer. The usage of queer in this context differs from the modern vernacular. Rather, the identifier provides a clarification of the close intimate emotional connection shared between the Bard and the young pupil.
Gender Play, or What You Will is far from a typical Shakespeare play. Audience members get tarot card readings and there is a dance party half way through the show. And yet the words of the Bard remain powerful and transformative.
Gender Play Or, What You Will Actors Theatre of Louisville June 13- 2025 Actors Theatre/Victor Jory Theatre 316 West Main St Louisville KY 40243 https://www.actorstheatre.org/
