Measure for
Measure Georgia Shakespeare Festival, 1998
Jim Farmer - On Stage
The centerpiece of Georgia Shakespeare Festival’s summer season is
undoubtedly Measure for Measure, the still-topical story of corruption and
sexual politics.
In Venice, the Duke (Tim McDonough) decides to leave his deputy, Angelo (John
Ammerman), in charge while he goes away. Angelo quickly lets the responsibility go to his head and sets
up a law banning adultery. Claudio (Brad Sherill) is quickly arrested and sentenced to death by Angelo
for having sex with his wife-to-be, Juliet (Park Krausen).
After hearing of this plight, Claudio’s sister Isabella (Janice Akers) comes
to Angelo and pleads mercy. Angelo refuses to waver, but finds himself oddly attracted to Isabella. He
eventually strikes up a settlement—if she sleeps with him, he will free her brother. Meanwhile, the
Duke has been masquerading as a friar and has been a first-person witness to the goings-on.
When Push-Push Theatre did Measure for Measure
this spring, it was lighter, sexier, shorter and frankly, hipper. But this version is truer to the
source—more menacing and far less jovial. Director Tim Ocel gives the Bard’s work some fresh energy of
his own, creating numerous haunting images.
What's so resonant is how valid Shakespeare’s work comes across today—the
lies and villainy could be taken from today's headlines. Eric Sinkkonen’s cold, steely sets give off an
appropriately authoritarian mood, with prisoners shutoff in jail cells and the other characters isolated
from each other.
The ensemble cast is dead-on, with all the leads connecting. The
confrontations between Akers and Ammerman are harrowing. Even the smaller roles are aces—Carolyn Cook
as Angelo’s ex-lover Mariana, Kristi Wedermeyer as the (usually male) Provost, Heidi Cline as the bawdy
Mistress Overdone, and Chris Kayser, especially slimy as Claudio’s friend Lucio.
Measure for Measure is running in repertory with
Moliere’s The Miser and Henry IV. Yes, it’s
three hours long, but it’s time well spent. If you’ve never seen a Georgia Shakespeare Festival
production, this is a dandy intro.