Many are aware that William Shakespeare’s female characters were traditionally played by men. In fact, one can easily recall a youthful Gwyneth Paltrow in “Shakespeare in Love,” garbed in doublets and breeches while reciting lines of undying love to a discernibly masculine Juliet, who is in fact played by a young man clad in pleats and frills.

This seemingly odd display of male performers assuming the role of female characters was a traditionally established practice in the playhouses of Elizabethan England. It was during the Restoration period of the early 17th century, however, when newly written laws authorized women, or actresses, to appear onstage alongside or in lieu of their male contemporaries.

Such was the period during which Jeffrey Hatcher’s “Compleat Female Stage Beauty” takes place, and such were the circumstances that would bring about the downfall of actor Edward Kynaston, played by Dave Durbin and the protagonist of Hatcher’s play, as he strives to fight these societal changes.

The Mercury Players’ production of “Compleat Female Stage Beauty” at the Bartell Theatre manages to successfully present the comedic yet tragic story of Kynaston, who, as a famous portrayer of female roles, is threatened by the emergence of actress Margaret Hughes and her sudden popularity on stage. As director Cara E. Peterson said in an interview with The Badger Herald, “He was the last of his kind; she was the first of hers.”

The play begins and ends with Kynaston and others performing a scene from one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, “Othello,” a work that bears great significance in relation to Hatcher’s tragicomedy.

These reenactments of Shakespeare’s plays within Hatcher’s play is both visually and intellectually compelling to audiences, following the familiar styles set forth by the previously mentioned film “Shakespeare in Love,” and even Shakespeare’s own “Macbeth,” both of which have a picture-frame style of storytelling. Instead of feeling distantly removed from the performance as a result of the play-within-a-play structure, the audience is often remarkably pulled into the show, thus blurring the line that separates the realm of theatre from the realm of the real world.

Members of the cast further engage with the audience by scurrying down the theatre aisles or taking a seat among the audience, all the while shouting and screaming obscenities at Kynaston, who remains on stage. Equally effective is the believable sound system that blasts whistles, catcalls and boos which engulf and envelop the viewers with a sense of true belonging.

Beyond the dominant presence of “Othello,” the rest of the play is speckled with a hodgepodge of great Shakespearean masterpieces such as “King Lear,” “Hamlet” and “Antony and Cleopatra” to name a few. Peterson praises Hatcher for his superlative achievement of merging the classical world of Shakespeare and the Restoration era with a modern-day world that is more readily and easily comprehended.

“Sometimes when you go see a Shakespeare show, you really don’t understand the language or what they are saying. Thus, you miss important plot points and much of the character development,” Peterson said. “But [Hatcher] does a really good job of keeping true to the spirit of the language of the time, and at the same time making it easily accessible for a modern audience.”

Indeed, the content of the play is easy to digest when integrated with the familiarity of our modern language and social contexts. For instance, the dialogue is doused with an abundance of profane words from the likes of “How much for a fuck?” Also, for better or worse, the representation of homosexuality is closer to home than to 17th-century Restoration England, as the demeanors, gestures and distinctive flamboyancies of the secretly gay Kynaston (who is involved in a torrid love affair with a duke of the court) appear strikingly reminiscent of those of Jack McFarland from “Will and Grace” — the present-day media’s quintessential, stereotypical portrayal of a homosexual man.

While the play itself was written during the late 20th century, the bawdy and risque content of “Compleat Female Stage Beauty” is especially appropriate to the genre of 17th century Restoration comedy, which was notorious for its sexual explicitness. The audience is presented with a fair bit of nudity and overt sexual references.

When the protagonist Kynaston finally succumbs to society’s expectations, he more than convincingly transforms his stage persona from the gentle Desdemona — Shakespeare’s ultimate embodiment of femininity — to the valiant and larger-than-life Moor, Othello. This was the pivotal moment when Dave Durbin’s performance truly encapsulated his range and capabilities as an actor. Durbin’s powerful rendition of Othello made irrelevant the banal slathers of black tar upon his face, intended to accentuate the Moor’s exotic ethnicity. Equally captivating were Kelly Murphy’s portrayal of the sassy and spirited Nell Gwynn and Bonnie Balke’s portrayal of the crass and terrifyingly corrupt Mistress Revels.

Shakespeare enthusiasts will not be the only viewers to delight in director Cara Peterson’s “Compleat Female Stage Beauty,” which is complete with puns and performances to make you laugh, harrowing sorrows that wrench your heart and a handful of social and moral issues worth pondering.

“Compleat Female Stage Beauty” runs through April 26 at the Bartell Theatre. Visit www.mercuryplayerstheatre.com/shows/stagebeauty/index.htm for information about tickets and showtimes, and check out www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvwmlWdytHo for a sneak preview of the show.