Paris, 1899. The world’s greatest actress, Sarah Bernhardt, is mounting a production of Hamlet, with herself in the title role.

She knows she’s too old to keep playing the ingenue roles that made her famous, so why the young Danish prince?

Because she wants a challenge worthy of her greatness, and Hamlet is one of the great roles.

Nearly every man in her life says it’s a bad idea, but brilliant, demanding Bernhardt persists – even while doubting herself and questioning the role itself. Why, she asks in Theresa Rebeck’s 2018 play Bernhardt/Hamlet, doesn’t Hamlet take action?

“When women do nothing, they are nothing; when men do nothing, they are Hamlet.”

Kate Mulvany in Melbourne Theatre Company’s Bernhardt/Hamlet. Photo © Pia Johnson

Anne-Louise Sarks’ long-awaited directorial debut as MTC’s Artistic Director is a comedy-drama about theatre itself, which invites us into the rehearsal and writing processes (yes, Bernhardt had the audacity to commission a prose rewrite of Shakespeare’s play). It’s rich with clever dialogue and insights about what actor and impresario Bernhardt had to push through as a woman of power reaching for more.

It’s a play that speaks of the present through the past,...