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Kelly Mengelkoch as Sherlock Holmes in "Miss Holmes" at Cincinnati Shakespeare Comapny. (photo by Mikki Schaffner Photography)

Cincinnati Shakes Season to Feature Female Sherlock and Hamlet

The theatre’s 19-20 season will feature some gender-bent casting and plays by Kate Hamill and Lauren Gunderson.

CINCINNATI: Cincinnati Shakespeare Company has announced its 2019-20 season, which it has titled the Season of the Woman, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which gave women the right to vote.

The season will open with Miss Holmes by Christopher M. Walsh (July 19-Aug. 4). This murder mystery features Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, except in this case both characters are now women who must navigate the restrictive rules of Victorian society while pursuing their careers.

Next will be August: Osage County by Tracy Letts (Sep. 6-28), the Pulitzer-winning family drama about a family unexpectedly brought back together when the patriarch disappears.

In time for Halloween will be Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus (Oct. 11-Nov. 2), known as his bloodiest play.

After that will be Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor (Nov. 15-Dec. 7).

For the holidays, CSC will present its annual production of Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some!) by Michael Carleton, James FitzGerald, and John K. Alvarez (Dec. 13-29). In it, three actors send up a variety of holiday classics, including Christmas CarolIt’s a Wonderful Life, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer, and Charlie Brown Christmas.

In January, CSC will present All the Way by Robert Schenkkan (Jan. 24-Feb. 15, 2020), about President Lyndon B. Johnson’s efforts to get the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964.

Then Kate Hamill will adapt Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (Feb. 28-March 28, 2020).

In April, CSC will present Shakespeare’s Hamlet, in which the title character will be re-gendered as a woman (April 10-May 9, 2020).

The season will close with The Book of Will by Lauren Gunderson (May 22-June 14, 2020), about the efforts to get Shakespeare’s First Folio published after his death.

Cincinnati Shakespeare Company is a professional theatre company dedicated to producing Shakespeare, literary adaptations, and contemporary classics.  In 2015, CSC became one of five theatres in America to produce all 38 plays by Shakespeare.

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