For the previous three years, Harlos Productions has mounted a series of successful and critically acclaimed Shakespearean productions. In 2003 the Bondi Pavilion is the venue for an exciting project: Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead in Repertory.

Following the principle of casting the best actor available, Hamlet is played by Angela Bauer. “Transvestite melodrama” (as Stoppard has his Player describe Elizabethan tragedy)? No, this is not a gimmick, and having a woman play Hamlet is certainly not new. And if early modern audiences could accept men playing women, why should postmodern audiences raise an eyebrow at a woman playing a man? “The play’s the thing” as Hamlet said.