Saw
Measure for Measure at the Folger Theater, set in the 1950s American South, which mostly worked extremely well as a recontextualization of the play— the sudden, arbitrary enforcement of a long-neglected law against "lechery" to condemn Claudio (who, here, is Black) to death for getting an unmarried (white) woman pregnant fits horribly well into the context of the Jim Crow era; the scene in which Angelo tells Isabella no one will believe her when she threatens to expose him for attempting to coerce her into sleeping with him to save her brother (and, at least as played here, he straight-up physically assaults her) carries additional weight when it's a white man in power and a young Black woman in that historical context. On the other hand, the
YOU get a marriage, and YOU get a marriage! happy(?) ending sits oddly in this context, since it does end up kind of implying that the town just magically solved its segregation problem by way of everyone ending up interracially married. (Separately, I was also a bit puzzled by the ambiguity in how they played Isabella's ending— via a sort of silent choreography— although, having mused it over, I
think the meaning was that Isabella rejects the Duke's hand in marriage, but doesn't take her vows as a nun, either, and instead dedicates herself to the Civil Rights movement?) Performed in southern accents, and while I cannot comment on the quality of the accents, it suits Shakespeare (see, e.g.,
that one "Friends, Romans, countrymen"); I assume the pronunciation of "Vienna" as "VYE-anna" is traditional rather than a production-specific choice, but it does fit well with the American tradition of naming places after other places but pronouncing it completely different. I had not realized there was a
third play in which a friar (or in this case, a "friar" who is actually the Duke in disguise) comes up with a plan that involves faking someone's death— there is actually quite a bit of overlapping random details with
Much Ado About Nothing? (Characters named Claudio, comedic malapropisms by a bumbling cop, questionable plans to reunite a jilted lover by way of faking someone's death and swapping places...?) The actress who plays Isabella (Renea S. Brown) was phenomenal, and I was delighted to recognize quite a lot of the cast from other shows around DC, including a couple of actors from
As You Like It earlier this year, which I just realized I never actually wrote up...
...so, yeah, back in March, I saw the Folger's
As You Like It, with a modern, DC-inspired setting— the scenes at Duke Frederick's court were played in front of a curtain printed with an image of the Capitol, and the forest of Arden was inspired by the vibrant street art of U Street Corridor; there were lots of little nods to local history and vibes throughout. The actor who played Touchstone (Ahmad Kamal, also the clownish "bawd" Pompey in
Measure for Measure) stole the show, all quippy added/ad-libbed asides and audience interactions and popping up among the balcony seats to throw popcorn at Rosalind and Celia or shout dialogue across the room to an actor on the other balcony. (This production tackled the
is Touchstone/Audrey cute or gross? problem by, technically, cutting Audrey/combining the role with the shepherd Corin; the same actress played both Corin and Phoebe, so Touchstone's unflattering declaration that he, too, wants to get married at the end was played as a joke, with a teddy bear for his "bride", and then he and Corin got a cute little bonus scene tying up their flirtation after the big triple wedding scene.) The other actor I recognized from both shows (John Sygar) played the exiled duke's court musician Amiens as a nod to DC's punk scene; in
Measure for Measure, his various parts included another guitar-playing musician, this time a nod to 1950s Elvis.
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