Measure for Measure

Abstract

Reviewed by: Measure for Measure Rachel Wifall Presented by Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival at Boscobel House and Gardens, Garrison, NY. June 25–August 28, 2016. Directed by Davis McCallum. Scenic design by John McDermott. Lighting design by Eric Southern. Costume design by Amy Clark. Sound design by Stowe Nelson. Choreography by Tracy Bersley. With Mark Bedard (Provost), Julia Coffey (Mariana/Mistress Overdone), Shawn Fagan (Angelo), Zachary Fine (Lucio), LeRoy McClain (Claudio), Sean McNall (Duke Vincentio), Stephen Paul Johnson (Escalus), Annie Purcell (Isabella), Kurt Rhoads (Pompey), and others. The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival is located on the historic Boscobel estate in the breathtaking Hudson River Valley, approximately fifty miles from New York City. Theatergoers are encouraged to come early to picnic on the grounds, and excellent concessions are also available. Performances are conducted under a large tent on a sandy floor with seats rising on three sides; "upstage" provides an entranceway for performers and a view over a wide green field and the river below. Four shows played in rotation this summer, the thirtieth anniversary of fine theater at this wonderful destination. On the night of this performance of Measure for Measure, the weather lent drama to the show. At times actors needed to project their voices over the din of heavy rains, but Pompey used the elements to advantage, donning a colorful shower cap and hitting the ground at a loud crash of thunder. [End Page 348] In his director's note in the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival 2016 season program, Davis McCallum wrote, "Measure for Measure contains two worlds: an 'overworld' of government, politics, and law; and an underworld of sex, disease and licentiousness. Moving between these two worlds is the enigmatic Duke, who is described as 'one who, above all other strifes, contended especially to know himself.'" McCallum further examined this division to analyze the concerns of the play at large, which "exists in a kind of identity crisis, playfully poised between comedy and tragedy, between a fart joke and prayer, between the longing of the flesh (or what Claudio calls 'this sensible warm motion') and the longing of the soul (or what Isabella calls 'our glassy essence')." This sense of duality was strongly supported by the use of costumes in his production of the play: while government officials and anyone to do with the law and the administration of "justice" wore purple (even the prison inmates' uniforms were purple striped), those associated with pleasure and personal freedom, such as the bawd Mistress Overdone, wore bright clothing of varied colors. Angelo, the most repressed of all, wore all black, with a purple armband as the badge of his authority; on the opposite end of the spectrum, Pompey the tapster was a transgender woman in heels and short shorts, sporting small tops, makeup and accessories that featured every color of the rainbow. The comic and licentious Lucio was decked out in tight shiny bellbottom jeans, a multicolor blazer featuring a complex design of birds, white leather shoes, funky shades, a wide white rhinestone belt and large rings. When in his role of duke and not disguised as a humble friar, Duke Vincentio—the character who moves between the two worlds and seeks to understand them—was dressed somewhere in the middle. While his suit was of one color, it was not purple, like Escalus's, but maroon; however, his shoes, ruff and cape were gold, as was the gold "bling" around his neck and the large ring that he bestowed upon Angelo. In a world in which women were defined by their sexual relationships to men, Isabella—the pure idealist—was clad in the simple purity of white and pale yellow, set apart from either of these earthly realms. While Lucio seemed to be of the 1970s and some of Pompey's gear echoed pop culture of the 1980s, the overall production did not evoke any specific time period, which is perhaps appropriate for a play that deals with universal and timeless questions regarding justice and morality. The lead actors gave strong performances. Isabella (Annie Purcell) came off as persuasive and sincere in her high-minded appeals, and Angelo (Shawn Fagan) took us convincingly through a range of moods...