MEASURE FOR MEASURE (WORK IN PROGRESS)

We came. We read. We voted.
Following on from last year’s King John, Then This Theatre Company presents a semi-staged reading of William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure.
Vienna has become a hotbed of vice. In order to better understand his people, Duke Vincentio appoints Angelo as his temporary deputy. Under Angelo’s totalitarian rule, Vienna becomes choked with a culture of anxiety and shame. When a young man named Claudio is condemned to death for premarital sex, he begs his sister, the would-be nun Isabella, to plead with Angelo for his life. Overcome by her beauty, Angelo agrees to spare her brother’s life…if Isabella will sleep with him.
Measure for Measure combines humor with pathos, as a virtuous heroine tries to save her brother and her soul from the lewd desires of a hypocritical villain—with a supporting cast of cheerily debauched characters. One of Shakespeare’s “problem” comedies, Measure for Measure looks at the rewards of virtue and the punishments of vice.
This reading of Measure for Measure is the culmination of the Re:past series of informal readings organized by Then This, whereby every second Sunday, a talented group of actors were invited to break bread and share in the reading and discussion of a classic text (such as The Spanish Tragedy, Everyman, Merry Wives of Windsor). At the end of the series, all the actors who had participated were asked to vote on which of the plays they would like to see further explored, and Measure for Measure proved to be the proud victor. It is a delight to share this next stage of our explorations into Measure for Measure with an audience via this bare-bones reading.