Off Broadway Reviews Measure For Measure

By Howard Miller

Warning: If you are not familiar with Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure before attending Elevator Repair Service’s wildly inventive and often thrilling production at the Public Theater, I can pretty much guarantee you will leave without any more understanding than you came in with. So do your homework, and brush up your Shakespeare before entering this tempo-distorting whirlwind that offers up both giddy slapstick and serious ruminations on themes of morality, justice, corruption, and the plight of women in a man’s world.

Judging by some of the props and Kaye Voyce’s costumes, the production would seem to be taking place in a boardroom or government office circa 1940. Jim Findlay’s scenic design incorporates several tables set up in a U-shape. On each table is an old-fashioned candlestick phone, and lying about are a several remote control devices which, when punched, alter the speed of the action. To get a sense of what to expect, imagine that you have gotten your hands on a DVD of the play, but you want to focus on certain scenes. What do you do? You fast forward through the sections you are less interested in, and you slow down when you get to the ones you want to study more closely. This is exactly how the company approaches the play, and how it is that they can bring it in with a running time of a little over two intermissionless hours.

What we zip through (and don’t expect to understand a word while this is happening) are scenes of exposition that take on a “yadda yadda yadda” quality as the cast moves about at breakneck speed. Also accelerated are many of the comic parts, so that much of the action featuring Shakespeare’s clowns, bawds and drunkards gives the production the look of a period madcap comedy, an altogether silly romp. But if you think of these as director John Collins’s “smoke and mirrors” and pay close attention, you’ll find an underlying thoughtful examination of the play’s deeper themes.

Excerpt from “Off Broadway Reviews Measure for Measure” by Howard Miller. Read the full article here.