Review: MEASURE FOR MEASURE, RSC
Photo credit: Helen Murray
Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey’s re-energising of the Royal Shakespeare Company, protecting the heritage and legacy of the Bard and bringing experiences to their stages that deepen our understanding of ourselves, each other and the world as well as bringing joy to the audiences continues to gain pace. After the announcement of the exciting new season which sees Kenneth Branagh, Mark Gatiss, Adrian Lester and Alfred Enoch in their productions, it was simply a pleasure to see Measure for Measure in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford upon Avon. Having studied the comedy with a strong morale theme at O level and enjoyed understanding the bawdy sexual references of some scenes as a schoolboy, this reviewer was, of course, intrigued to see it on stage for the first time in fifty years!
We did not need the heavy-handed video introduction of images of Bill Clinton, Matt Hancock, Harvey Weinstein, or Greg Wallace projected on an expensive looking silver wall that backed the thrust stage to tell us that this was a modern resetting of the story of how man’s base instincts are corrupted by power. Audiences are surely intelligent enough to draw their own inferences and connections if a play is performed well to not require this spoon feeding. Perhaps it helps appeal and connect the work for a younger generation but when the performances that follow are this good, it really is unnecessary.
The original play too has been edited down, and we lose the characters of Elbow, Froth, Pompey and Mistress Overdone whose saucy banter sets the context of brothels and pimps for the actions of Angelo. It focuses on his one action, the order to execute Claudio for fornication outside marriage rather than a drive to clean up the city of Vienna. It also casts more doubt on whether he a virtuous man on a mission corrupted by the power that the Duke gives him or a salacious man failing a test set by the Duke as he suddenly leaves the city for a few days. The Duke returns as a barely disguised Friar Ludowick setting up lots of comic scenes of mistaken identity with the remaining bawdy Lucio and others.
But at the heart of the tale is how the virtuous Isabella, sister to Claudio, on the eve of entering the nunnery responds to the proposition that if she sleeps with Angelo, he will spare her brother’s life. Isis Hainsworth brings a youthful innocence and charm to the role of Isabella presented with the terrible dilemma of losing her virginity or her brother. We can see her turmoil and understand her reluctance to submit to the man who insists that the “law is not dead but has slept” and that the punishment proposed is” just but severe”. For her, the solution proposed of sleeping to avoid the law is unjust and severe, and against her moral and religious conviction. The Duke in disguise manipulates the situation with the “bed trick” substituting Mariana in Angelo’s bed and the ”head trick”, substituting the head of Ragozine (who has just died) for Claudio’s. You might think that all’s well that ends well after that, but the ending has an ambiguous twist which perhaps reinforced the idea that “all men are bad” or as the song played says that they “can’t help falling in love with you”.
The Duke, played by Adam James, has a manipulative smarmy air whose motives are not clear. Does he take leave of the city because he recognises that he has failed to control the City over the last fourteen years and hopes a better man might enforce the law for him, or does he have some ulterior motive? Angelo, played Tom Mothersdale, is officious and authoritarian but does rather easily succumb to Isabella’s innocent charm but wonderfully depicts his comeuppance at the end. Douggie McMeekin has great fun as Lucio, delivering the indiscreet and fantastical assertions about the Duke and Friar with wonderful comic skill and a deadpan earnest belief which makes them all the funnier.
Emily Burns directs this all with a firm hand, well-paced, good blocking and draws out the laughs so it meets the billing as a Shakespeare comedy while connecting to us as a modern morality tale. There is good support from the rest of the cast too, especially the honest brokers of Escalus (Sion Pritchard) and Provost (Natasha Jayetileke).
The thrust stage setting by Frankie Bradshaw with green bench sets defining Angelo’s office and a glass screen depicting the prison cells reinforce the modern setting and provides an effective location with an outer waiting area for both spaces. The finale transformation replacing the grandiose silver wall with the steps of the city walls is saved by the introduction of two video screens to capture the reactions and responses of the characters as the Duke returns. It reflects the TikTok world (sponsors of the RSC 14-25 £10 ticket scheme) where short videos bring insight and humour with immediacy to the users. The cameras catch the moments of delight when Friar Peter, Valentine Hanson, is put on the spot to explain Friar Ludowick’s absence to the Duke or Angelo’s horror at having to marry Marianna (Emily Benjamin).
Measure for Measure has been described as one of his “problem plays” but in this very fine edited version, it resonates wonderfully in today’s society with the counter position of moral dilemmas, political expediency, human base instincts and the corruption of power. We, in the audience, are drawn into the narrative by direct asides and eye contact with the protagonists as if asked to take sides. Perhaps the moral of the tale is that we, the society, have to hold those in power accountable for their actions as you can’t trust any of them whatever their initial motivations to not be corrupted by power. It is extraordinary that a play written over 420 years ago can still challenge us like this, seemingly relevant and bang up to date, and that is the legacy that the RSC must continue to protect and promote.
***** Five stars
Reviewed by: Nick Wayne
Measure for Measure plays at the RSC until 25 October, with further info here.