The Globe and Mail, August 16, 2005
The very best Bard treatment of the year
By: Kamal Al-Solaylee
Watching Leon Rubin's triumphant production of Shakespeare's so-called problem play Measure for Measure at Stratford, you have to wonder what exactly is everybody's problem with it and why isn't this absorbing and provocative play produced more often?
With Measure for Measure (not seen at the festival since 1992), Richard Monette concludes his personal mission of staging the entire Shakespearean canon during his tenure as its artistic director, which began in 1994 and expected to end in 2007. He may have left it a tad late, but he also left it in extremely gifted hands. This is a production where all the elements come together: a clear directorial vision, nimbly articulated by John Pennoyer's modern designs and brought to vivid, heart-warming life by a first-rate cast that includes Jonathan Goad, Dana Green and Thom Marriott.
The play itself poses a number of ethical, social and political questions that, 400 years after it was written, remain far from resolved. How does a civilized society regulate such delicate concerns as sexual morality and prostitution without reverting to puritanical clampdowns or turning a complete blind eye? What's just about absolute justice and what is the real quality of mercy?
This sustained debate takes shape in the story of the Duke of Vienna (Marriott), who pretends to leave town and places his severe deputy Angelo (Goad) in charge of cleaning up a city rife with bawdy houses and sexually transmitted diseases. When wanna-be nun Isabella (Green) pleads with Angelo to spare the life of her brother Claudio (Jeffrey Wetsch), who has knocked up his girlfriend, the struggle between virtue and corruption takes on more complex shades.
What makes this Measure for Measure tempting indeed is the confidence and clarity with which Rubin approaches such a dicey play. I have to admit that my heart sank when the production started with a depiction of the brothels as a cross between a decadent Berlin in the 1920s and an acrobatics class. My mind went back to Rubin's A Midsummer Night's Dream at Stratford last year where his penchant for bungee jumping and circus arts was given full reign to, in my opinion, the detriment of the production. Wisely, that initial tableau (which ultimately looked like a window display at a fetish store) gave way to a thoughtful and sparkling reading of a play set in today's world and dressed up by Pennoyer in everyday "urban camouflage" to look the part.
But don't mistake the arguably nondescript look of the rest of the production with a lack of eye-catching theatricality. Measure for Measure is rich with scenes -- regrettably, some of them take place offstage in the text -- where characters perform and stage their own little dramas. There's a "bed trick" where one woman takes another's place, and the final act, as the program essay reminds us, shows the Duke's love for political theatre as he reveals secrets and true identities in one hell of a production number.
It's a measure of Rubin's control that the production's exuberant air sits very comfortably with its heavier moments. In one scene, you have Don Carrier mischievously but expertly playing it to the rafters as the irrepressible Lucio and next you're eavesdropping on a metaphysical conversation between Claudio and Isabella about fearing but accepting death. Each moment has its place; each sentiment is compellingly expressed and illuminated (literally) under Robert Thomson's lighting design.
If words, lights and action play their parts in this production, then so does silence. Trust the brilliant Green to convey her character's inner feelings even in scenes where she's not given any lines -- notably when she discovers that her brother Claudio is still alive and in the final scene when the Duke extends his hands to hers in marriage. Green captures Isabella's sense of unease at this proposal with one final, unsettling look. Elsewhere, her grasp of Shakespeare's language is exemplary and her stage presence is to die for.
Goad is similarly dazzling as Angelo, a tough nut to crack since he presents extremism on one hand and human fallibility on the other. This is the third performance this season from Goad at the Tom Patterson Theatre (following The Brothers Karamazov and Orpheus Descending) where he's giving nuanced and riveting performances. I love his musical and deeply felt delivery of the Bard's language. I wasn't quite convinced why Angelo practically rapes Isabella in his office when the play hinges on him exchanging sexual favours with her, but both actors turn the moment into an example of the combustible sexuality that runs through the play.
Completing the trio of leading roles is a lively and astute performance from Marriott that paradoxically shows his character's ultimate good nature and suggests why Isabella views marrying him with such ambivalence. In supporting roles, there's a scene-stealing cameo from Diana D'Aquila as Mistress Overdone, comic sophistication from Andrew Massingham as her tapster Pompey, and notable performances from Paul Hopkins as the Provost and Wetsch as Claudio.
Note for note, this Measure for Measure is the best Shakespeare at Stratford this season, easily eclipsing the more high-profile but banal As You Like It and the tackily sentimental Tempest.