The women of prime-time drama would have a field day with some of the dialogue in "The Queens," a play that defies conventions despite its hints of Shakespeare and history, although strictly of the revisionist kind.

The REP, Point Park University's professional theater company, is tackling Norman Chaurette's play, translated from the French by Linda Gaboriau. Or, as director Sheila Mc-Kenna puts it, they are "investigating" a play in which the language and the characters are the thing, and all other bets are off. "The Queens" presents six noblewomen vying for the throne at the time of Shakespeare's "Richard III" as they meet in a surreal landscape of time and space and don't hold back on any of their emotional baggage.

Take for instance this exchange between Isabel Warwick and the sharp-tongued Queen Margaret, about to lose her crown as King Edward lay dying. It's among the less ambiguous bits of dialogue in a play fraught with emotional exchanges. The Queen has revealed that she plans to go to China instead of returning to "reconquer" France, as Isabel Warwick puts it.

Isabel: (stoically) "China. What will you do in China?"

Queen Margaret: "Continue to loathe the lot of you. I want to see how far one can take contempt ..."

These regal women can be catty and cruel as any "Gossip Girl" ever dared to be.

McKenna first came upon the play during her graduate studies, when she happened on the idea of bringing the women in "Richard III" to the fore, then found that Chaurette had already done the deed.

McKenna and her collaborator, choreographer Andrew Koslowski, used "investigation" as their buzzword in helping the actresses explore their characters. Koslowski helped each member of the cast discover a defining gesture or movement that suited her role.

"We don't break out into a dance number; there's no choreography in that sense," McKenna says.

Rather, the movement is all character-driven.

The only thing we know of the setting is that it takes place in 1483 London and the women connect on their way to somewhere -- the castle, the cellar -- "the Beckettian void," as McKenna describes it.

Instead of medieval trappings, though, set designer Nathan Brubaker has given the actors a playground in which to express themselves. That includes a 14-foot depression with steps and angles that allow the women to walk, slide, crawl or make their way as their emotions demand at the moment.

An unconventional play demands such unconventional choices, but McKenna is not worried about the barrier of unfamiliarity or the ambitious way the production has been realized by The REP.

"I'm quite compelled by the relationship of one character to each other, stuck in this void," McKenna said. "The imagery and the language is so rich, there are a lot of different ways to look at it. The play has a lot of space for the audience to hear, to see, to bring to it what they wish. If you just focus on the language, the rigors, the playful sort of take on people, there's that. It's written in a surreal structure, the time-space continuum is manipulated; I'm fascinated by that. There's a visual vocabulary and a movement vocabulary, so there's that to appreciate," even if all of the mysteries of the play are not revealed in a linear way.

Then there are the women themselves, who jump from fascinating to repellent with a twitch or a word.

If she is forced to pick one, she says she most identifies with Margaret, played here by Bridget Connors. The queen's biting sarcasm and sense of humor mirror characters McKenna has been drawn to as an actress.

"Different scenes represent different aspects of ourselves as women; some not very attractive," McKenna says. "In Shakespeare's 'Richard III,' Lady Anne [Warwick] is more sympathetic; she's weak, vulnerable, and [in that way agrees to marry him]. In this, she's ruthless. And the actress playing her, Amy Landis, is quite the evil child.

"And the Duchess of York, the way Shirley Tannebaum is playing her, she's not just dying. She has difficulty separating; she leaves unfinished business. And Anne Dexter [Erica Highberg], this young woman we keep hearing of with no hands, we can all identify with wanting someone to just acknowledge your presence, to be seen for who you are. Who doesn't want that?"

Other members of the cast are Kelley Bowen as Elizabeth, who is endlessly in search of her children, and Jennifer Tober as ambitious Isabel.

"The play is a beautiful representation of women of every age, from birth, to puberty, to motherhood, to crone, into dying," McKenna says. "It's a fascinating look into this whole cycle."

In Shakespeare, McKenna notes, you have "mostly burly men with swords changing history." Chaurette has gone the polar opposite, with "six women set into a fictional nowhere and politicking ... manipulating, scheming, plotting; it's intriguing right from the get-go."

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