Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure is set in Catholic Vienna and peopled by devout believers, nuns, friars, sinners, religious hypocrites and brothel-keepers. While it is a challenging work, considered one of Shakespeare’s ‘problem’ plays, many of its issues are pertinent to today’s Ireland: conflicting constructions of morality, the extent to which public laws can control private acts and bodies, and the influence of religious doctrine on the state. Theatrecorp’s timely production turned many of Measure for Measure’s ‘problems’ into creative possibilities. 

Under Max Hafler’s direction, Theatrecorp used the Michael Chekhov technique to develop an ensemble-style production in which the actors offered a psychophysical interpretation of characters and story. The performance opened on Vienna’s administration, with The Duke (Sean O’Meallaigh) announcing his departure and transferring his power to his deputies Angelo (Darragh O’Brien) and Escalus (Mary Monaghan). Here, brisk speech combined with sharp movements to convey a sense of business-like urgency as the actors' black suits marked them starkly against a predominantly white set. Juxtaposed to this was an encounter with the brothel, in which Mistress Overdone (John Rogers) and the prostitutes working for her were dressed provocatively in bright colours, moving freely and fluidly to the rhythm of Baccara’s 'Yes Sir, I Can Boogie'. This countered the stiff and stuffy opening moments with a sense of fun and freedom.

Although Hafler’s approach was actor-focused, designers Mary Doyle (set and costume) and Mike Byrne (lighting and sound) played a huge role in the production’s artistry. Doyle used colour and style in her costuming to place characters on a spectrum between sensuality and repression. Her set, though sparse – consisting of a cream floor crossed with black lines, a few chairs, and a large, white-curtained back-drop – also offered visual potency; its overall paleness picked up on Byrne’s interplay of light and shadow to render elements of character, setting, mood and the passage of time. For example, bright, sterile lights appeared to drain O’Brien of blood as he played a stiff-postured Angelo, sporadically rubbing his hands together. Here, lighting designer and actor worked together to express Angelo’s physical and emotional coldness. The backdrop picked up the brothel’s dreamy pink hue, projections such as the convent’s church-like window and, sometimes, the actors’ large imposing shadows. The latter added a sense of menace at appropriate times, as did the sound of a ticking clock, reminding us that time was running out for Claudio (Emmet Byrne), sentenced to death for making his fiancée pregnant. Much of the sound design worked to emphasise key moments in the production, but a running water effect which punctuated certain scenes seemed superfluous.

In keeping with Shakespeare’s play, Theatrecorp’s production began by constructing a dichotomous world of strict regulation on the one hand and liberated indulgence on the other. Yet, the distinctions between these extremes become blurred throughout Measure for Measure, and Theatrecorp used casting and performance to further the play’s ambiguities. O’Brien was a younger, slighter Angelo than one would expect, destabilising conventional images of authoritative masculinity and, in his interactions with Isabella (Sarah O’Toole), of gendered power. As Isabella, O’Toole used emotional delivery and expressive, open-armed gestures to add warmth convincingly to a character that appears on paper almost as cold as Angelo.

Theatrecorp employed some cross-gender casting, with Rogers playing Mistress Overdone as a drag queen, and Mary Monaghan played a female version of the male character, Escalus – Angelo’s second in command. This had the potential to reveal how women, too, can help to maintain patriarchal structures. Unfortunately, Monaghan seemed, at times, unsure of how to embody this Escalus.

However, Overdone’s cross-dressing, along with other aspects of the production, pointed to current issues concerning institutional regulation of sexuality and the body. Juliet (Réidín Ní Thuama) and Claudio (Emmet Byrne) wore placards emblazoned with the words ‘whore’ and ‘bawd’ respectively when they were paraded by police across the set. Mistress Overdone endured excruciating verbal and physical abuse at the hands of a gang on her way to prison. These striking moments illuminated how laws denying sexual freedom and equality can inadvertently condone public attitudes that fuel discrimination and hate crime. The attack on Overdone was followed by dimly-lit, stylised moments, in which some of the cast, coughing and moaning, slowly dragged chains across the set. This purgatorial insertion brought to life Measure for Measure’s textual images of disease. Its timing connected Vienna’s sickness not to sexual freedom itself, but to vicious attitudes towards it.

The play, like much of Shakespeare’s drama, is filled with convenient coincidences and implausible scenarios. Some actors played up the comedy of this through tongue-in-cheek theatricality (such as a collective gasp when the Duke’s ‘disguise’ – a Friar’s hood – is removed). O’Meallaigh’s performance as the Duke improved as the production progressed, offering some hilarious interactions with Daniel Guinnane who played Lucio with effervescent sprightliness. Several of the actors occupied dual roles; in addition to Claudio, Emmet Byrne offered ample comedy as Pompey, but his hammy clownishness detracted from the philosophical potency of some of the character’s lines.

O’Toole was the the star of the show, using actions and facial expressions to play against the text at important moments and taking Isabella on a liberating journey, through which she discovered her right to choose her own future. Hafler’s direction extracted powerful nuances which politicised the work and updated its relevance. Overall, Theatrecorp offered a production that was engaging and entertaining, revealing the play’s dramatic riches and pushing against conservative assumptions of what Measure for Measure can be about.

Siobhán O’Gorman teaches at the National University of Ireland, Galway, where she completed her doctorate in contemporary theatre in 2011.