Liam Vincent in She Stoops to Comedy.

In Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Rosalind, one of his wittiest heroines, manipulates her beloved, Orlando, by disguising herself as a man.  In the Bard’s original productions, a man would have played Rosalind — in other words, a man playing a woman playing a man.  In its West Coast premiere at SF Playhouse,  She Stoops To Comedy is about a production of As You Like It.  And here, a man plays a woman playing a man, too — but this time, it’s Orlando who’s doubled.  It’s as confusing as it sounds, as playwright David Greenspan readily (and explicitly) acknowledges.  But in this clever and poignant production, directed by Mark Rucker, the confusion is the fun.

Alexandra (Liam Vincent), an actress, has just broken up with Alison (Sally Clawson), who got the part of Rosalind.  Jealous of Alison’s flirtations with other actresses (and, presumably, of her theatrical success), Alexandra disguises herself as a man so she can audition for the part of Orlando.  (We see Alexandra only in her male “guise”).

Plays-within-plays inherently comment on their medium, and Greenspan’s choice to use As You Like It gives him the opportunity to meditate on the “doubling,” or performing of multiple roles — not just in the theatre, but in terms of gender and sexuality, love and language.  “Who in their right mind would want the male prerogative?” asks Kay/Jayne (the astonishing Amy Resnick, who plays the two parts in conversation).  And the matriarchy, she adds, is just as bad.  So why buy into either when you’re creating your identity?  Why even have a single identity?  Similarly, as the “stereotyped aging homo” who comes on to the disguised Alexandra, Simon (Scott Capurro) begins as “Silent Simon,” his thoughts narrated by Jayne, only to launch into one of the most wrenching monologues of the play, in which he laments his performance of homosexuality in light of his AIDS, his aging, his adherence to a scripted portrayal of gays.  “Who wants another play about him?” he asks.

But the most spectacular doubling in this play is in the writing itself — not just in the countless plays on words, but also in the insertion of playwright Greenspan into the script.  The play feels as though it’s being written as it’s being performed.  Writer’s insecurities become characters’ insecurities, as characters comment on the ill-advised direction of a scene, or the ineffectiveness of a joke.

Under Rucker’s direction the cast enlivens the musicality of Greenspan’s script at breakneck rhythm.  As Alexandra, Vincent gets the actress’s insecurities and jealousies, but acting gay is not quite the same as acting female.  Clawson, as Alison, enacts her character’s wish that an actor be more “relaxed,” but beside Vincent’s showy performance and Capurro and Resnick’s show-stopping ones, she doesn’t fit in.  As director Hal and his assistant Eve, Cole Alexander Smith and Carly Cioffi provide fine comic relief — until they get a scene of their own, where the rhythm inexplicably drops.

Does Orlando know Rosalind is really a woman?  Does Alison know that Alexandra is?  Does true love prevail?  We never know for sure, and these aren’t the important questions. The magic of this play lies in its boldness to ask something larger — what is the self and how should one perform it?

She Stoops To Comedy continues through Jan. 9, 2010 at SF Playhouse, 533 Sutter Street, San Francisco.  For tickets ($30 to $40) call (415) 677-9596 or at sfplayhouse.org.

Check out Lily Janiak’s blog at http://lilyjaniak.blogspot.com/