The Steam Industry presents an innovative approach to a well-loved piece. It’s clever, looks gorgeous and only just falls short of being an unmissable production. At the Union Theatre.
Shakespeare’s problem plays are neither comedy or tragedy, and they always feel like a bit of a mixed bag. In Measure for Measure, the Duke of Vienna goes away on leave and entrusts his deputy Angelo with enforcing dormant laws. Barely in office, Angelo begins to rid the city of scum and moral decay. One of the early accused is Claudio, who got his fiancé Julietta pregnant out of wedlock. He is to be beheaded as punishment, and it seems only the pleading of his virgin sister Isabella manages to pierce Angelo’s unrelenting shell. There is a catch, of course; only if she, who is preparing to become a nun, gives herself to Angelo, will he consider releasing the brother. When Isabella goes to tell her brother about the situation, she is sure he will agree that his death will be preferable over such a degrading act. What a surprise – she has to think again.
The story, of course, is so much more intricate than that, and there are secret letter exchanges and disguised friars in abundance. But the main issue stands: the idea that women are regularly sacrificed by men to save themselves, to make a point about frailty and morality or for mere entertainment has not been passed up from Shakespeare’s times.
Today’s level of awareness about various issues – inequality in payment or the normality of female objectification – are only ever slightly raised by such admirable campaigns as SayNoToPageThree. Director Phil Willmott is certainly very aware of how the sexual politics have changed throughout the centuries, but also how some patterns still remain solidly misogynistic. What, then, do you do with a text that essentially uses marriage as punishment for wrongdoers?
How about letting the audience walk straight into a brothel, greet it with the voluptuous Pompeia (Natalie Harman in a strong performance), and seduce it to look right at the debauchery? And why not then lead it away to a court room to be witness to a trial about moral decay? Supported by a partly promenade approach and a gorgeous moving cage-like set structure by Phil Lindley, it’s an innovative use of the space. When it elegantly disperses focus, Miguel Vicente’s light design in particular contributes to that spatial seduction.
Towards the end in a nightclub scene, the production finds some intelligent and visually strong solutions to suggest a shift in power between the sexes. There are other very strong motives evoked by set and costume (Philippa Batt) that place the production in a vaguely fascist society. This comments on a lot of recent issues in the media, and highlights the devastating effects seemingly arbitrary political decisions have on regular people’s lives.
The scope of the production asks a lot of the 14 performers, and sadly they can only partially keep up with the challenge. It is a shame that Daisy Ward’s holier-than-thou Isabella can’t quite carry the weight of that responsibility and struggles to match Paul Critoph’s strong performance of the conflicted enforcer Angelo. From the first moment onwards it is Rikki Lawton who hits the nail of the production right on the head with his cheeky lawyer Lucio. His banter with Nicholas Osmond’s Duke is comedic relief in the more anaemic and laborious stretches of the production.
When cutting down Shakespeare texts it’s always hard to get the balance just right, and so there are some performers you’d just like to see more of. Laura Webb as Juliet, for example, is underused, as is Richard Franklin as the Provost. Dermot Dolan’s constable Elbow, with his richness of malapropisms and his interplay with Brian Eastty, is not as funny as he should be.
If you’re ready to overlook these kind of things it’s an exciting take on Shakespeare that comes with a lot of vision and many things to like about. Deserves seeing.