FERNDALE, Mich.–One of the benefits of adapting Shakespeare’s plays and changing genders of the characters as they lie, connive, dissemble, plot and generally act badly in the pursuit of power, is that it provides the democracy of truth that both genders are more than capable of all that and more.

In The Slipstream Theatre Initiative’s new adaptation of Othello (Torri Lynn Frances), both Othello and her right-hand devotee Iago (Tiaje Sabrie) are women and Desdemona (Othello’s wife)in the original Shakespeare has been converted to Desmond, (Steve Xander Carson) Othello’s husband whom she has married in secret.

This adaptation, written and directed by Luna Alexander, keep the core of the story. War has come to Cyprus, and the island has been crippled by forces led by Othello, a feared and admired naval officer and the first black Admiral produced by the State. Othello is very much in love with Desmond, but she quickly comes to doubt his honesty and fidelity, having those seeds of mistrust planted by Iago who is jealous of the new hubby.

Alexander’s treatment and the performances of the actors makes the gender reassignments almost irrelevant soon after the play begins and our eyes adjust. Perhaps because most of us have had female bosses and co-managers, the roles seem perfectly natural. The time of the play is really in space and not fixed. Othello’ uniform does not feel particularly contemporary, but the garb of Desmond, Rear Admiral Cassio (Jake Rydell), Lt. Chad Rogers (Ryan Ernst) and Emil Gratiant (Bailey Boudreau) is contemporary. And the use of smartphones in the story, an increasingly common device in Shakespeare plays no matter the time the story is set, helps bring the story into currency.

The gender and sexual identities extend to other characters as well. Desmond’s alleged infidelity is depicted as being with Cassio. Bianco, Cassio’s real lover, (played by Ernst in a walk-on) is depicted as an over-the-top gay man looking like he wandered on stage from a Key West drag club. Boudreau’s Emil, “Emilia” in Shakespeare’s text, is Iago’s gay best friend and Desmond’s right-hand. Boudreau plays the part in Act One as effeminate as a gay wedding planner channeling Puck. This is not a bad thing given the casting of genders and in this context. By the time of the reckoning, though, Emil hunkers down and is suddenly a clarion voice on stage, putting people, including Iago, in their places with an anger and resoluteness where we can almost see the vein popping on his forehead. It’s an appropriate and believable transformation.

Ms. Frances’s Othello starts out a touch languid. Perhaps she is tired from warring? But as the play progresses, her energy builds and she fully gets her arms around the Admiral’s pride, jealousy and vindictiveness. Ms. Sabrie’s Iago is cool, chilled and worthy of any ad agency executive plotting to take her co-workers down in a plan that would have her in the corner office at the end of the story. She plays the part well from her eyes to her posture as the plotter who is the only one on stage who knows where all the Easter eggs are. Of course, in Shakespeare, such people usually get run over in their own traffic in the end, or forget that they are sawing the limb they are sitting on in the wrong place.

The set in the Slipstream’s intimate space is quite compelling and cleverly constructed by set and lighting designer Ryan Ernst. Othello’s ship, a shore-based locale are separated, and the port atmosphere is depicted by graffiti-styled original paintings by artists Allison Janicki and Joshua Daniel Palmer. One set piece turns and opens to reveal a red satin covered boudoir of Othello and Desmond that ultimately becomes Desmond’s death bed. A touch of modern music here and there provides comic relief. “Aint No Mountain High Enough.”

Slipstream has not always, for me, stuck the landing when it comes to the company’s Shakespeare adaptations. But this Othello is very compelling, even-handed, well conceived and executed, and visually a pleasure to watch. It runs almost two hours with no intermission, and the time flew by.

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