Blow-up sex dolls, a seductive Nun, a fake beheading and monk that turns
out to be a promiscuous Duke. Measure for Measure is certainly
a ‘problem play’. You can’t help laughing when the curtain falls down, but only
because the ending is clearly not the normal happy-ever-after.
With several couples lined up and ready to marry by the end, Measure
for Measure is technically a ‘comedy’, but it is, at the very least, a
black comedy. No one reaps their true deserts in this play; the Duke is not
punished for his gluttonous past, the angelic Isabella does not get to take her
vows as a Nun and, most importantly, Angelo is not hung, drawn and quartered
for his hypocritical sadism.
Having impulsively bought two tickets to Measure for Measure to
cheer me and my friend up as we mourned the end of our English degrees, I
should really have prepared myself for what was in store by reading a few
reviews; but I didn’t want to spoil the surprise.
I'd previously seen some fantastic plays at the Young Vic, including
a Hamlet, which saw Michael Sheen playing the Dutch prince as
a mental patient in the 1960s, an outstanding performance by Gillian Anderson
in A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Trial, starring the
one and only Rory Kinnear. Half of the joy of seeing Shakespeare on stage is to
see how it has been adapted by a particular director – whether they’ve chosen
to stay traditional, or placed the set in a specific era – whether a character
has been demonised or played more sympathetically. Reviews are all well and
good, but I favour an organic reaction.
Seeing as we’re talking about the Young Vic, I was prepared for
something original and even a bit bonkers, but not a heap of blow-up sex dolls.
As we squinted to figure out what was littering the stage, my friend raised her
eyebrows as if to say, I thought you said this was a sophisticated evening?
Sophisticated it was. As the cast proceeded to throw the lifeless bodies
across the stage, trampling and wading their way through the masses, the
careless way in which human life was treated under Duke Vincentio became
apparent. The dolls acted as emblems of the people whose lives revolve around
what society considers to be 'sordid' and 'unmentionable'. Shakespeare may have
written the play 400 years ago, but our behaviour hasn’t really changed – porn
has merely superseded prostitution and countless politicians pretend to be more
moral than they actually are.
I loved the use of film which served to separate the pure minimalism of
Isabella’s life with the thumping black heat of the prison. Zubin Varla was a
sharp and powerful presence on the stage as Duke Vincentio, particularly as he
rounds up his subjects at the end, but Romola Garai did a fantastic job as Isabella,
succeeding in making her sympathetic and human, when she can often seem aloof.
Young Vic, you never disappoint.
Photo credits: Laura Peatman; The Guardian
No comments:
Post a Comment