If a Shakespearean play ends in marriage, it’s a comedy, and if it ends in death, it’s a tragedy. But what if a Shakespeare play acts like a tragedy up until the very end, where the play suddenly ends in marriage? That is referred to as the Problem Play — for which “Measure for Measure” qualifies, due to its ambiguous tragic-comedy status, but also because problems are raised (about hypocrisy, sex, justice and mercy), and remain largely unanswered at the end.
Why did West Hyler, in his last year in the MFA directing program, choose this problematic play? “Shakespeare’s tale of moral hypocrisy at the highest levels of government remains all too relevant today,” reads the program. The story is of a degenerate city where prostitutes and politicians saturate the underworld until the Duke (Scott Drummond) disguises himself as a Friar to observe and meddle with his kingdom. One man, the relatively innocent Claudio (Brian Hostenske) is sentenced to death; his crime is having consensual sexual relations with his lover. The innocence of the deed is heightened by the hypocritical Angelo (Ryan McCarthy), in charge while the Duke is away, who, in covetous lust, tries to manipulate Claudio’s sister Isabella (Genevieve Hardison), a nun-in-training, to give herself to him. With the empty religious figures and the corrupt political officials in the play, it is not difficult to draw comparisons to figures of today’s world even more dastardly than the duplicitous leaders in “Measure for Measure.”
But this production does not present a black and white interpretation of evil or corruption. In some of the strongest moments of the production, we accompany Angelo through his chilling torment between moral righteousness and his licentious yearning for Isabella. In one scene we see him whipping himself in self-mortification as he tries to subdue his lust, followed by a scene where Isabella comes to him, and he is so consumed that he assaults her.
The director displays the quandaries of the story without inventing answers to Shakespeare’s unsolved questions or oversimplifying the material, as is often the case with contemporary Shakespeare productions that attempt to show the audience what the words mean. Much to our relief, this production uses the crotch grab sparingly (or updates the gags, as with the Renaissance Dildo that shows up in Act I) and breezes along in engaging textual interpretation.
There is something amiss, however, with the character of Isabella. Hardison, having played a sensual and empowered woman under West Hyler’s past direction (i.e. “Weight of Paper”), seems a good choice for the character of Isabella, who must exude sensuality without trying to. However, Hardison’s natural sultriness was stifled, and occasionally lost, under the burden of the role. It was as though in closing off Isabella from any acknowledgment of sexual desire, she was cut off from a truthfully human performance. This in itself prompts questions about Shakespeare’s invention of a virginal nun, who triggers a lust in men so strong it would turn Angelo to lechery and the Duke to a marriage proposal. Indeed, to answer the question of how to play Isabella one must answer how any woman can possibly embody the age-old Madonna-whore complex.
That is one question among many that is asked in “Measure for Measure,” and it is one of many problems that Shakespeare presents but does not necessarily conclude. Intentionally or not, the Bard leaves it up to the audience to exercise our own minds and engage each other in dialogue about the nature of the society around us. Perhaps it is this idea that Mr. Hyler had in mind.
“Measure for Measure” plays through Feb. 25 at Mandell Weiss Theatre. Tickets are $10 for students, $15 for general admission.
