The Pembroke Players is a company devoted to presenting classical theater to Tulsa audiences — although not necessarily in “classical” ways.
For example, the Players’ first-ever production was of what many consider one of the greatest plays ever written: “The Tragedy of Hamlet,” by William Shakespeare.
However, the company presented a highly edited version of this tragedy and relied on its audiences to select which of four actors would take on the drama’s principal roles at each performance.
The company’s newest venture is presenting a different sort of classic — a stage adaptation of the Academy Award-winning film “Shakespeare in Love.”
While this show, running March 6-15 at the Tulsa PAC, might seem a departure from the Pembroke Players’ usual theatrical fare, founding member and artistic director Cody McCoy says this play fits perfectly into the company’s artistic vision.
“We wanted this season to be all about ‘Romeo & Juliet,’” McCoy said, “and ‘Shakespeare in Love’ is about how this play — one of the most famous works in all of literature — came to be written.”
The 1998 film, written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, employs a great deal of artistic license in telling of how a young Shakespeare, facing a deadline for a new play and bereft of inspiration, came to write the story of two “star-crossed lovers.”
For one thing, “Shakespeare in Love” would have one believe the play was supposed to be a comedy with Romeo’s object of adoration, a young woman who’d been captured by pirates, that includes a happy ending and some bit featuring a dog.
But then a stagestruck young noblewoman named Viola de Lesseps disguises herself as a man in order to audition, setting in motion a romance that will mimic the tale audiences have come to know as “the tragedy of Juliet and her Romeo.”
The movie incorporates a good deal of dialogue from the original play and is loaded with references to other Shakespeare works, as well as nods to the theatrical world of Elizabethan England.
McCoy said he was completely overwhelmed the first time he saw the film, in part because he had recently gone through a romantic breakup and found a measure of hope in the movie’s poignant ending. But he was also taken with the language.
“It’s really kind of a collaboration between two of the greatest playwrights in the English language — William Shakespeare and Tom Stoppard,” he said. “Shakespeare’s play is filled with just gorgeous, gorgeous words, and Stoppard supplies all these hidden little lines and references that brings a real contemporary wit to the story.
“People who know Shakespeare’s work well are going to be laughing constantly, because just about every other line references another of his shows,” McCoy said. “But you really don’t need to have a deep background in Shakespeare to enjoy the story.”
Vern Stefanic, who has worked as a playwright and director for almost every local theater group, is making his debut with the Pembroke Players as the director of “Shakespeare in Love.”
Like McCoy, Stefanic is also a fan of the film — so much so that he was at first reluctant to take on the task of directing.
“I used to teach script writing at Tulsa Community College for a long time, and I would usually spend at least one, maybe two, of those three-hour sessions studying ‘Shakespeare in Love,’” Stefanic said. “I’m such a huge Tom Stoppard fan, and I love the film so much that I really didn’t want to touch it. I thought it was pretty perfect the way it is.”
Stefanic finally agreed to do it and began researching the project. He learned Stoppard’s script had been adapted for the stage by Lee Hall.
“He wrote ‘Billy Elliot,’ which is the show that made him famous, but he’s also the author of ‘The Pitman Painters,’ which I was able to do with Theatre Tulsa several years ago, and which was a huge deal in my theatrical life,” Stefanic said. “That’s when I thought I might still feel intimidated by this play, but let’s try to make this happen.”
While Hall’s adaptation contains, by Stefanic’s estimation, about 80 to 85% of the film’s dialogue, it is not a strict rewriting of the original script.
“Hall has made some very subtle differences in how this language is presented so that this story truly becomes a celebration of the art of theater,” Stefanic said. “That’s what makes this a great story to play, and why I think Hall’s adaptation is nothing short of brilliant.”
The Pembroke Players’ production of “Shakespeare in Love” will feature Michael Cossey as William Shakespeare, Erika Reider as Viola de Lesseps, Hayden Abel as Christopher “Kit” Marlowe, Sally Allen as Queen Elizabeth, Stephanie Mullican as the Nurse, Aniq Zoha as Lord Wessex, Kurt Harris as Philip Henslowe, Davis Simpson as Ned Alleyn, Gavin Wells as Richard Burbage and Lucus Keppel as Master Tilney.
Performances are at 7:30 p.m. March 6-7 and March 13-14, along with 2 p.m. matinees March 8 and 15 in the Liddy Doenges Theater of the Tulsa PAC, 110 E. 2nd St.
Tickets are $31-$36. Call 918-596-7111 or visit tulsapac.com for more information.
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