Measure for Measure...
Jul. 27th, 2007 09:32 amWent last night Beulah and I to see Measure for Measure put on by the Salamander Theatre's Young Shakespeare Company, on a park only a few blocks from my place. Good timing, good location. I'd be happy if someone brought a Shakespeare play to my neighbourhood every week. Though I suppose it wouldn't work in winter.
Measure for Measure: An odd play to choose, in my opinion, and I've never known what to make of it. Much more problematic (for me) than The Taming of the Shrew, for example, and not as entertaining - mostly because I have trouble getting a handle on it. Are any of the characters particularly likeable? Before we saw it, Beulah asked me what the story was, and I was hard put to give a description that was more than bare bones: Angelo threatens to kill the brother of a novice nun unless she has sex with him. I'd mostly forgotten the interesting themes of corruption, repression, and sexual license that are tossed around. As with much of Shakespeare, I'd say that what mostly comes across is a plea for tolerance of sin - sexual sin, anyway. No one in the play seems to think deception is a sin.
We were both impressed by the actress who played Elbow and a few other parts, Emilia Alvarez. I really liked Cynthia Bernstein as Pompey. Anna Lewis as Isabelle was disappointing - not a bad performance, but it lacked both character and interpretation. Kyle Villeneuve as the Duke had good diction and carrying power. Cari Leslie was confusing in playing both Mistress Overdone and Abhorson - I couldn't keep track of when she was which. The company had a shortage of men, and many women playing men's roles, which added something when we had women-playing-men kissing or fondling women-playing-women. Good costumes. No set, except for a medieval-style wooden chair.
There were lots of kids in the audience, and I wondered what they made of it. It wasn't the ongoing physical comedy that the Company of Fools presents.
I was a little surprised how much Elbow was like Dogberry.
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