Now in its 33rd year, Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival — the oldest professional theater company in continuous operation in Palm Beach County — is getting around to some of its namesake playwright’s less popular works.
Plays like Measure for Measure, a dark comedy of judicial and sexual politics, categorized as a comedy chiefly because it concludes with couples sorted out and heading to the altar.
Set by Shakespeare in Vienna, then a city of bordellos and debauchery, director Trent Stephens moves the locale to New Orleans. That is a reasonable equivalent, though it adds little to the production except for a painful opening sequence of Big Easy revelry and an extraneous, tone-deaf musical number in the second act.
Otherwise, the play unfolds rather conventionally, at least by PBSF’s standards. That is a wise choice on Stephens’ part, who assumes this to be the initial encounter with Measure for Measure for much of the audience.
It concerns the effort by the city’s chief executive, The Duke, to clean up the realm with a handful of strict new laws. Unwilling to enforce them, however, he hands over the governmental reins to his deputy Angelo. Proclaiming plans to leave town, The Duke instead sticks around disguised as a friar to observe Angelo’s rule.
The first victim of this Draconian system is Claudio, arrested and sentenced to death for having sex with and impregnating his fiancée, Juliet. Claudio’s sister Isabella, a virginal nun-in-training, pleads with Angelo for his mercy. Smitten with her, Angelo agrees to pardon Claudio in exchange for sexual favors from Isabella.
Any similarities with contemporary power-abusing politicians are, of course, strictly coincidental. Still, it is not surprising that Measure for Measure, first performed in 1604, has resonance with today’s #MeToo era.
Making her Festival debut and standing out among the cast members is Caroline Dopson as Isabella. Although she sounds untrained in classic text, she uses that naïveté to her advantage in character development and projects Isabella’s moral dilemma well.
Company veteran Darryl Willis (The Duke) is the only cast member to employ a Southern accent, which flavors his performance. Also standout assets to the production are Alex Gomez (Angelo) and Emma McAvoy as Marianna, once engaged to Angelo and now eager to assist in the scheme to thwart his lecherous designs on Isabella.
With a dark narrative like this, Shakespeare felt the need to leaven the play with such broadly comic supporting characters as servant Pompey and the aptly named bawdy house manager, Mistress Overdone. But whatever humor they were supposed to provide fails to materialize here.
Director Stephens prunes the play into a series of short scenes with minimal loss to the plot, and he pares the cast down to 12 with some astute doubling.
Measure for Measure is unlikely to be your favorite Shakespeare play, or even in your top ten, but Palm Beach Shakespeare makes a persuasive case that it is a work you should get to know. It continues at Jupiter’s Carlin Park through Sunday, July 16, before moving to Royal Palm Beach’s Commons Park the following weekend.
Measure for Measure, Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival, Seabreeze Amphitheatre, Carlin Park, 750 South, AIA, Jupiter. Through July 16. Commons Park Amphitheatre, Commons Park, 11600 Poinciana Blvd., Royal Palm Beach, July 20-23. Free of charge, $5 donation recommended. 561-762-8552.