Turning both "head tricks" and "bed tricks," "Measure for Measure" is offering audiences a stark new look at the classic Shakespeare play in Rebecca Maxfield's '13 production, running this Friday through Monday in the Crystal Room in Alumnae Hall.
The play opens with the Duke (Nick Lourie'14) conferring his authority upon Angelo (Ningfei Ou '15), one of his councilors, as he leaves the kingdom. The set is sparse, with actors using furniture already in the room and few props, focusing attention on the story line and acting.
As the play continues, Angelo reveals himself to be a cruel leader and attempts to make an example of Claudio (also played by Ou), condemning him to die. Only his sister, the virtuous nun Isabella (Elexis Trinity '13), can save him by offering Angelo her virginity.
The once virtuous judge Angelo becomes a hypocrite, embodying a central theme of the play — the tension between innocence and corruption. "Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall," says Escalus (Isabella Giancarlo '14), underscoring the dramatic conflict facing each character.
The cast members reveal themselves as true actors of the drama. Caught between integrity and vice, half the actors play more than one major role. With these multiple parts, cast members portray characters at either ends of this tension, caught between virtue and lechery.
"There's so much in ‘Measure' about multiple capacities or multiple personas," Maxfield wrote in an email to The Herald. Because of this duality, she chose actors like Alejandro Garcia Morales '15 to begin in the role of Pompey, pimp and bartender, and finish as the executioner, Friar Peter, she wrote.
Maxfield also chose to explore the character of the Duke to a greater extent than most productions. In the story, the Duke never really leaves but stays on as the "mysterious puppet-master figure" who controls the major plotting of the play, she wrote.
Instead of the usual ending where he proposes to the nun Isabella, Maxfield makes the Duke "offer her his worldly authority, because he's seen her ideas about justice develop — they strike a balance between the Duke's previous lax rule and Angelo's severity," Maxfield wrote.
Indeed the Duke does act as a kind of manipulator for both the humor and drama of the plot. He organizes a "bed trick" in which Angelo is duped into having sex with his fiance (Chloe-Alcestes Anastasiades '15), believing he is taking Isabella's virtue. He also plans a "head trick," sending Angelo the head of a dead pirate so Claudio can keep his life.
The play was produced by the Program in Renaissance and Early Modern Studies. "I sought to produce it independently precisely because Shakespeare on the Green wasn't interested in exploring the themes I saw in it," Maxfield wrote.
The actors themselves are mostly first-years and sophomores, who bring fresh new talent to the show. Despite this, the cast seems to have found a sense of cohesion. Throughout rehearsal, problems and mistakes were confronted with laughter and good-natured camaraderie.
The end of the play leaves the audience with the humor of black comedy and the seriousness of virtue and sin. As the quotable Lucio (John Oberbeck '14) puts it, "When maidens sue, men give like gods."
****
(Four out of five stars)
Fresh interpretation and focused acting make for a dramatic take on Shakespeare.
