Wide of the mark
Measure for Measure
The Old Fire Station Theatre, 22-26 November
Production: 3/5
Cast: 3/5
Direction: 4/5
Surprisingly, given its themes of sexual morality, power and hypocrisy, Measure for Measure is one of the leastknown and performed works in the Shakespearean canon. Its indefinable mix of tragedy and comedy make it an awkward beast to tame for the stage. Adam Burrows’ production attempts to solve the problem by emphasising the play’s comic elements over the tragic, while ensuring that the moral dilemma central to the play is not compromised.
The play is the story of the Duke of Vienna’s (Leon Harlow) attempts to enforce the draconian sexual codes of his city; he employs his slavering deputy Angelo (Neil Boyd) to get his hands dirty with the local sexual miscreants. When chaste Isabella’s (Sian-Robins Grace) brother Claudio (Shane Sibbel) is arrested for some extra-marital nooky with his betrothed, Angelo offers Isabella the chance to save her brother in exchange for some nudgenudge- wink-wink action.
But in this performance it is the comic sub-plots that dominate, aided by two intelligently humorous turns from Christina Ciocca and Paul Russell.
Russell especially, portraying Lucio as a grotesque combination of dandyish fop and Sid James-esque buffoon Grace’s performance suggests both moral inflexibility and humane beneficence, so that when she is being persuaded by both her foul suitor and her cowardly brother to sacrifice her virtue, the weight of her dilemma rests heavily on the audience. The remaining performances are marred by technical problems.
Boyd cleverly decides to play Angelo as a sycophantic, sharp-suited New- Labourite, but he appears to have forgotten that he is grappling with poetry. Watching him and Sibbel’s Claudio handle the nuances of Shakespearean verse is at best awkward and at worst akin to having the original four folios torn up in front of one’s eyes. The two actors have sacrificed poetry for clarity, which Grace’s performance shows is a needless compromise.
The production is modern in terms of staging, music and costume, referencing Blairite hypocrisy and even life in a certain English university. Director Burrows’ enthusiasm and belief in the play’s present relevance is evident, but attempts to contemporise speech as well as staging means that it lacks the beauty and power of a great Shakespearean production.
17th Nov 2005