Measure for Measure
Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Playing until 25 October 2025
The last production of Measure for Measure which I saw was at Shakespeare’s Globe, a production which heightened the importance and presence of sexual licence in Vienna by placing two quasi brothels in among the groundlings, so that they became the citizens of Vienna, surrounded by decadence and corruption. It became clear that something needed to be done about the moral chaos which people were surrounded by.
This Royal Shakespeare Company production directed by Emily Burns and designed by Frankie Bradshaw couldn’t be more different. Instead of highlighting and exaggerating the importance of the Mistress Overdone/Pompey sub plot, it is cut completely, so that the audience’s focus is wholly on the main plot. Instead of having a complex, colourful and textured set this unitary one is grey steel – modern, cold, textureless. Instead of presenting a play about moral decadence, Emily Burns presents a study of hypocrisy. The audience can’t miss it. The play begins with news clips of well known contemporary British and American hypocrites and so that it is context within which we are asked to read the play. Whether the hypocrisy is selfish and twisted or whether it is benign and apparently morally worthy it is hypocrisy nevertheless.
For me one of the best bits about the play is Claudio’s ‘Ay, but to die, and go we know not where’ speech – pivotal in the play. Its atheist or at least agnostic almost Marlovian undertones contrast his sister Isabella’s perhaps naïve piety beautifully, and in this production the Act III, scene I speech is wonderfully performed. Oli Higginson’s Claudio is powerful and emotional and plays off Isis Hainsworth’s Isabella wonderfully. The transparent Perspex prison which descends, enclosing Claudio, adds to the bleakness and directness of the scene. Other bits of hypocrisy, like Tom Motherdale’s sexually repressed and motivated Angelo, The Duke’s seemingly moral but meddling actions as the Friar and Douggie McMeekin’s self-interested Lucio are very clearly conveyed. But there is also a different kind of more subtle hypocrisy shown by the splendidly played Escalus (Sion Pritchard) and Natasha Jayetileke’s Provost, both trying to keep their jobs and status but led into duplicity by doing so. Because we have seen the contemporary clips at the beginning we are able to identify different kinds of hypocrisy everywhere.
There are also some unexpected minor additions too. The sex between Angelo and Isabella’s substitute Mariana, only referred to by Shakespeare, is briefly but graphically presented. However, there is some complexity here, too. At the end of the scene in prison Claudio is straightjacketed by the prison guards. In the ‘sex scene’ Angelo is straightjacketed by his own shirt and blindfolded and gagged by Isabella with more than hints about s and m before she leaves Mariana to it leaving the audience to reassess Isabella’s piety and moral integrity during the interval.
Further really interesting moments come when Escalus and the Provost are with the Duke when he is in disguise. Do they recognise him? Do they then play along with his game? It’s not made obvious but it crossed my mind three times and made me remember the brilliant RSC production of As You Like It many years ago when Orlando suddenly recognises who Ganimede is but doesn’t let on.
The ending of the play, too, gives the audience something unexpected to think about. When the Duke returns to Vienna he does so to photographers and pararazzi, a flurry of media interest and the video of the sex scene. A flight of twelve steps across the stage appears, too, and after the final words of the play are spoken Isabella slowly climbs the steps. And then….
I think this is an outstanding production. The programme notes refer to it as an adaptation. I don’t think this is really the case. It seemed to me to be a clarifying interpretation which presents the heart of the moral issues which Shakespeare was exploring for his audience. Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre was set amidst the brothels and inns of Bankside and so the contemporary references and significance were obvious to his audience. The RSC is not set in this context but it is set in a world where people are on their mobile phones (evident even in the interval) catching up not only on news but also on the lies and moral improprieties of social media.
I have to say I was amazed by this production. After experiencing the complexities of set, action and ideas of Emily Burns’s productions Love’s Labours Lost at the RST and Jack Absolute Flies Again at the National, I had expected something visually varied and stimulating and the presentation of plot in a complex way. I had not expected the directness, simplicity and clarity of focus that this has. It really is something to see and hear.
Only one word of warning. We went to press night and sat in the back row of the stalls – a brilliant place from a visual point of view, but not everything was audible, particularly when actors had their backs to the audience. I would have expected this flaw to be corrected during previews but it wasn’t. So if you haven’t booked tickets yet – and I do think this is a must-see production – make sure that you are not underneath the overhang at the back of the stalls unless like me you know many of the long speeches and many of the play’s exchanges by heart.