Measure for Measure
Lucio and a group of soldiers banter about religion, prostitution, and venereal disease as they walk along a Viennese street, hopeful that they will soon find work when war breaks out with Hungary.
Pompey Bum, an employee of Mistress Overdone, enters as he leaves, bringing more distressing news: Angelo has issued a proclamation that all the brothels in the suburbs are to be torn down.
As the interim ruler of the city, Angelo has enforced laws that Vincentio had let slide, including an outdated legal clause stating that fornication is punishable by death.
Instead, he has disguised himself as a friar named Lodowick, wanting to secretly view the city's affairs and the effects of Angelo's temporary rule.
In his guise as a friar, he befriends Isabella, and arranges two tricks with her to thwart Angelo's intentions: The plot comes to a climax with Vincentio's "return" to Vienna.
The play's main themes include justice, "morality and mercy in Vienna", and the dichotomy between corruption and purity: "some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall".
A 2016 essay by the literary critic Giuseppe Leone analyses parallels between the episode of Claudio's supposed beheading and that of John the Baptist, as narrated in Matthew 14:1–12.
Herod Antipas' public oath of providing Herodias' daughter with whatever she demanded ensured the Baptist's execution, without necessitating the production of his remains.
In Leone's view, his stepdaughter's demand, "Give me here John Baptist's head on a platter", serves the same purpose of allowing for self-satisfied gloating in power over others.
The executed victim in those works is ordered to be sent to the sister, without either of the perpetrators, Iuriste and Promos, showing any interest in obtaining or viewing the remains.
Moreover, by making both Angelo and Mariana, and Claudio and Juliet, secretly married, he eliminates almost all of the illicit sexuality that is so central to Shakespeare's play.
Gildon also offers a partly facetious epilogue, spoken by Shakespeare's ghost, who complains of the constant revisions of his work.
[14] In late Victorian times, the subject matter of the play was deemed controversial, and there was an outcry when Adelaide Neilson appeared as Isabella in the 1870s.
The use of an unlocalised stage lacking scenery, and the swift, musical delivery of dramatic speech set the standard for the rapidity and continuity shown in modern productions.
Poel's work also marked the first determined attempt by a producer to give a modern psychological or theological reading of both the characters and the overall message of the play.
[18] In 1957 John Houseman and Jack Landau directed a production at the Phoenix Theatre in New York City that starred Nina Foch and Richard Waring (Jerry Stiller appeared in the minor role of Barnardine).
[19] In 1962, the Royal Shakespeare Company staged a production directed by John Blatchley starring Marius Goring as Angelo and Judi Dench as Isabella.
[20] In 1976, a New York Shakespeare Festival production featured Sam Waterston as the Duke, Meryl Streep as Isabella, John Cazale as Angelo, Lenny Baker as Lucio, Jeffrey Tambor as Elbow, and Judith Light as Francisca.
[22] Rudman restaged his concept at the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1993, starring Kevin Kline as the Duke, André Braugher as Angelo, and Lisa Gay Hamilton as Isabella.
[26][27] In 2018, Josie Rourke directed a gender-reversal production at the Donmar Warehouse in London, in which Jack Lowden and Hayley Atwell alternated in the roles of Angelo and Isabella.
