MEASURE FOR MEASURE. To 16 September.
Bath/Stratford-upon-Avon
MEASURE FOR MEASURE
by William Shakespeare
Theatre Royal in rep to 12 August
7.30pm 25, 29, 31 July, 8, 10 Aug
2.30pm 26 July, 2, 5 Aug
3pm 12 Aug
Audio-described 26 July
Post-show talk 10 Aug
then Courtyard Theatre Stratford-upon-Avon 13-16 September 2006
Wed-Sat 7.30pm Mat Thu & Sat 1.30pm
Runs 2hr 45min One interval
TICKETS: 01225 448844 (Bath)
0870 609 1110
www.rsc.org.uk (Stratford-upon-Avon)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 22 July
Finely-focused, clearly acted, production gives very good Measure.
A high-backed oak-carved chair stands alone centre stage, its red-covering signifying authority, as its isolation amid the black surrounds declares authority’s loneliness. James Laurenson’s Duke, who becomes at least as central to Peter Hall’s detailed, sympathetic production as are the anti-lovers Angelo and Isabella, enters and sits, uneasy, never still. Rarely can his first word, a call for his senior councillor Escalus, have resounded so tellingly.
With Escalus several lords enter; the loneliness of the man at the top, upon whose word everyone waits but with whom no-one is intimate, is clear. No wonder this Duke needs to find out what life’s really like.
Angelo’s mighty leap in being given chief power in the Duke’s forthcoming absence also becomes clear. He’s not among the courtiers emerging at the first summons, but is sent for later. Then, on leaving, Angelo instinctively gives place to Escalus; it takes that lord’s deference to point up his colleague’s new elevation.
When Isabella, a novitiate nun, comes with all her own ignorance of realities to plead with newly-empowered Angelo against his death sentence on her brother (for breaking the newly-enforced law against extra-marital sex), the deputy is so busy writing he doesn’t so much as glance at her, for all her radiant, impossibly pure, convent clothing. He seems wilfully to turn away, not wanting reality to get between him and his idealised law-making.
Meanwhile, realities work away in Vienna’s streets and suburbs, represented by Teddy Kempner’s cheerily plausible Pompey, with his cunning and evasions, or Annette Badland’s Mistress Overdone with her laments for what’s happening to suburban brothels, and no-one able to make her see beyond her daily bread and bawd if they wanted to. Or Michael Mears, a courtly-mannered, and voiced, Lucio (making brilliant sense of the role), whom nothing will shut up for long.
The final sting comes just as all seems resolved; the Duke’s invitation to Isabella, whom he sees as his equal in morality, whom he’s just helped (if tortuously) to justice, rejecting his public offer of alliance. Individuals' ideals, unmeasured, remain unbalanced, the realities of life complex beyond anyone’s organisation.
Duke: James Laurenson
Escalus: Barry Stanton
Angelo: Richard Dormer
Lucio: Michael Mears
Mistress Overdone: Annette Badland
Pompey: Teddy Kempner
Claudio: Ben Turner
Julietta: Susie Trayling
Provost: Paul Bentall
Friar Thomas/Froth: Malcolm Ridley
Friar Peter/A Justice/Abhorson/Barnadine: Simon Thorp
Isabella: Andrea Riseborough
Francisca: Pauline Turner
Elbow: Edward Bennett
Angelo’s Servant: Robert Gill
Officer: Andrew Coppin
Mariana: Caitlin Mottram
Varrius: Peter Cadden
Director: Peter Hall
Designer: Kevin Rigdon
Lighting: Peter Mumford
Sound: Gregory Clarke
Composer: Mick Sands
Costume: Trish Rigdon
Associate director: Rachel O’Riordan
2006-07-26 16:53:41