All too few pleasures distinguish ‘Measure for Measure’

Shakespeare's dark comedy receives a respectable but dull revival

BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

OFF BROADWAY REVIEW

One of our most distinguished of classical companies, Theatre for a New Audience offers a perfectly respectable and, unfortunately, perfectly dull revival of "Measure for Measure."

That's too bad: Shakespeare's dark comedy studies a hypocritical statesman who rigorously strives to sanitize a libidinous society while doing dirty deeds in his own private life. It is a 405 year-old play that easily can speak to our own troubling times.

Director Arin Arbus dresses the story in modern clothes, but the production that opened Sunday at The Duke is altogether too colorless to be engrossing. The staging is quick and capable, the acting is always clearly-spoken and competent and yet there's little punch to these cool proceedings.

Arbus needed to whip up a far more decadent atmosphere for this story of low morals in high places. Designer Peter Ksander's austere bronze and iron setting remains as utterly spotless as the virginal heroine, Isabella, who is propositioned by the "outward-sainted" governor Angelo when she tries to convince him to lift his death sentence for her brother, condemned for fornication.

The tidy world created here presents few contrasts between the characters and their actions for better or worse. So the ironic nature of Shakespeare's tale is dissipated and its inherent comedy falls flat.

That said, a lady-like Elisabeth Waterston is properly urgent as Isabella. If his inner fires are banked too low to burn, a tall, deep-voiced Rocco Sisto makes an imposing Angelo. In the key role of the Duke who leaves Vienna in Angelo's charge only to return in disguise as a friar to circumvent Angelo's misdeeds, a somber Jefferson Mays is more contemplative than commanding in manner — one seriously wonders why Isabella and other characters are convinced to go along with his elaborate schemes.

John Christopher Jones' bumbling constable, Graham Winton's compassionate prison magistrate and Alfredo Narciso's scandal-breathing man about town are especially nice performances to see amid the tedious doings of this generally forgettable "Measure for Measure."

"Measure for Measure" continues through March 14 at The Duke, 229 W. 42nd St., New York. Call (646) 223-3010 or visit www.dukeon42.org.