PA Shakespeare Festival will perform two plays in repertory, which means the same actors perform in each play, sometimes even on the same day, and the two plays use the same stage.

Performers will go from the brooding intensity of Shakespeare‘s epic tragedy “Hamlet” to the instance hilarity of Tom Stoppard’s existential comedy “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.”

“Hamlet” runs July 9 to Aug. 3 and “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” runs July 17 to Aug. 2 in the Main Stage Theatre, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, DeSales University, Center Valley.

While PSF usually performs two plays in repertory every season, what makes this coupling different is that most of the cast play the same characters in the two plays.

Considered Shakespeare’s masterpiece, “Hamlet” delves into the depths of human thought, revealing the darkness that lies beneath loyalty, love and justice.

Set in Denmark, the play depicts Prince Hamlet (Biko Eisen-Martin) and his attempts to exact revenge against his uncle, Claudius (Kirk Wendell Brown) who has murdered Hamlet’s father (Damien J. Wallace) in order to seize his throne and marry Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, (Grace Gonglewski).

As Hamlet pulls at the tangled threads of his broken family, a web of deceit and betrayal unravels, leading him into a storm of moral conflict. What follows is a relentless struggle between revenge and redemption as Hamlet’s pursuit of truth threatens to destroy everything he holds dear.

Director Lindsay Stirling says the production is not locked into one specific time period.

“You’ll see elements from different eras colliding, a kind of clash that mirrors what the characters are going through,” Stirling says.

“I’m especially excited for Biko Eisen-Martin to lead the way as Hamlet. He brings so much passion and depth to every role he takes on. I think he’s going to bring something really compelling to the role,” says Stirling.

The play is recommended for ages 13 and older for staged violence and mature themes.

Meet the actors for a talk-back after the July 31 performance.

The July 26 performance has open-captioning for patrons who are deaf or hard-of-hearing and audio descriptions for patrons who are blind or visually-impaired.

“Hamlet,” 7:30 p.m. July 9, 10, 11, 16, 25. 30, 31, Aug. 2; 6:30 p.m. July 15, 22; 2 p.m. July 20. 23, 26, Aug. 3, PA Shakespeare Festival, Main Stage Theatre, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, DeSales University, 2755 Station Avenue, Center Valley. 610-282-9455, https://pashakespeare.org/

Tom Stoppard’s brilliant Tony Award-winning comedy flips the story of “Hamlet” sideways.

Lost in a Shakespearean drama they barely understand, Rosencrantz (Sean Close) and Guildenstern (Maboud Ebrahimzadeh), two glorified extras from “Hamlet,” stumble into the spotlight to flip coins (which mysteriously keep landing heads), ponder the meaning of life (spoiler: they don’t figure it out), and wonder if they’re actually the main characters in someone else’s tragedy. Occasionally, the “real” play crashes their existential party, sending them into a panic of “Wait, which one am I again?”

Director and PSF artistic director Jason King Jones says when the play premiered in 1966, “it spoke directly to a generation questioning authority, purpose and meaning.”

“The world had become too large and too complex for tidy narratives,” Jones says. “Stoppard captured that anxiety in two bewildered men and a Player (Ian Merrill Peakes), who tells them, with a smile, that stories end the way stories end, whether they understand them or not.

“The lesson Stoppard has taught me, across years of reading, performing, attending and directing his work is that we cannot escape the end. But we can choose how we play the game,” says Jones.

The play is recommended for ages 13 and older for mild adult language, some dark humor and occasional references to violence and death.

Meet the actors for a talk-back after the July 24 performance.

The Aug. 2 performance has open-captioning for patrons who are deaf or hard-of-hearing and audio descriptions for patrons who are blind or visually-impaired.

The cast for the two shows includes Kirk Wendell Brown, Taysha Marie Canales, David Pica Laertes, Pepin, Eric Hissom, Relena Kiser, David Andrew Laws, Arrianna Daniels and Darin F. Earl II.

The cast for “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” includes Shawn Laun and Ryan Plunkett.

“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,” 7:30 p.m. July 17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 26. Aug. 1; 2 p.m. July 27, 30, Aug. 2; 6:30 p.m. July 29, PA Shakespeare Festival, Main Stage Theatre, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, DeSales University, 2755 Station Avenue, Center Valley. 610-282-9455, https://pashakespeare.org/

“Curtain Rises” is a column about the theater, stage shows, the actors in them and the directors and artists who make them happen. To request coverage, email: Paul Willistein, Focus editor, pwillistein@tnonline.com