REVIEW: Measure For Measure, Donmar Warehouse ✭✭✭

Paul T Davies reviews Measure For Measure by Wiliam Shakespeare which is now playing at the Donmar Warehouse.

Jack Lowden (Angelo) and Hayley Atwell (Isabella) in Measure for Measure. Photo: Manuel Harlan Measure for Measure.

Donmar Warehouse.

12 October 2018

3 Stars

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There has never been a more pertinent time for Josie Rourke’s inventive, fast paced production of Shakespeare’s unromantic comedy. The first half is set in its period, and is an abridged version of the play, the central pairing of Angelo and Isabella gaining more focus. Her brother, Claudio, has been scheduled for execution as Angelo, deputising for Duke Vincentio, enforces a strict moral code and charges Claudio with lechery. In a key scene, Isabella, a novice nun, begs for her brother’s life, and Angelo offers to release Claudio if she has sex with him. The traditional version progresses until, just before the interval, the lights slash through the auditorium, and in a brilliant coup de theatre, when the lights snap back, everyone onstage is in modern dress, the roles of Isabella and Angelo are gender reversed, and he has to beg her for his brother’s life. Exactly the same words are spoken.  In the wake of the Supreme Judge Kavanagh scandal, the production places at its core the question, “What does it take for a woman to be believed?”

Jackie Clune as Pompey in Measure For Measure. Photo: Manuel Harlan

This is the perfect play to explore toxic masculinity and the movements against it, but it is overwhelmingly obvious that it is the traditional half that is the more powerful, Shakespeare’s seventeenth century words slapping us fully in the face with their relevance to modern society. The updating, as the second half progresses, ultimately promises more than it can deliver. It is interesting seeing the same words spoken with a different emphasis, we are a more cynical age, but the use of technology means that it is harder to keep secrets, and some of the plot struggles against the presence of social media. The religious order Angelo is about to enter is made vague, though it looks suspiciously like rehab. However, the Duke’s offer of marriage to Isabella/Angelo, which remains unanswered, still feels like a threat from the man with ultimate power as he blithely orders the characters to marry, seemingly against their will. The odds are still stacked against the woman, a point the production makes superbly.

Ben Allen as Frederick in Measure For Measure. Photo: Manuel Harlan

The cast are very strong. As the central couple, both Jack Lowden as Angelo and Hayley Atwell as Isabella, capture the right amount of vulnerability and manipulation, although, at this stage of the run, I felt there were more impassioned emotions still to be found. Nicholas Burns is very engaging as Duke Vincentio, enjoying his disguises and not shying away from the slippery nature of the character. Surprisingly, mainly perhaps because of the editing, comedy is missing a little in the first half, but is brought forward in the second by the wonderful Jackie Clune and Rachel Denning, although they are somewhat underused. Matt Bardock is an excellent Lucio, funny in both halves, and Adam McNamara a superb Provost, his silence saying much in Act One, although he does look away when his boss is, in effect, sexually assaulting Isabella, a look away that speaks volumes.

Rachel Denning (Mistress Overdone) in Measure For Measure. Photo: Manuel Harlan

Overall, this is an interesting production that is more than a gimmick, although, inevitably perhaps, some of the jokes seem a little obvious in the contemporary setting. I left feeling that I would have liked to have seen one version or the other, with the traditional being my favoured experience. The reverse side of that is that it is bold in its ambition and enjoyably performed. Perhaps it is fitting that this production both frustrates and fascinates in equal measure.

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