MEASURE FOR MEASURE
Angelo’s hard-liner rationale is that “We must not make a scarecrow of the law.” Almost casually, he sentences Claudio to death, saying “‘Tis one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall.” But it turns out that the lustful Angelo is as capable of sin as Claudio, When Isabella pleads for her brother, Angelo erupts with a lust he never knew he harbored; once Isabella’s purity has perversely ignited his prurience, he tells her he’ll spare her brother’s life if she’ll submit to him. Isabella indignantly refuses–and at first Claudio, prepared for death, agrees with her: “If I must die, I will encounter darkness as a bride / And hug her in my arms.”
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But at its best, Measure for Measure illustrates one of Shakespeare’s magnificent obsessions, the need for authority to know itself well enough to show the kind of mercy it may one day require itself: “Man, proud man! / Dress’d in a little brief authority / . . . Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven / As make the angels weep.” Angelo’s power only magnifies his too-human weakness. OK, but you wonder why such a wasteful and painful experiment is necessary–unless the Duke is just a sadistic, manipulative bastard, which has always been my favorite theory.
In this production, the relief–comic or otherwise–comes only when it’s over. As Shakespeare’s clumsy clowns, Gus Buktenica and Peter DeFaria are loud but tedious and unfunny (admittedly their quips make less than howling comedy). Dale Calandra, who’s never lacked for comic talent, is badly miscast as the lying bully who tweaks the disguised Duke and regrets it later. But Leo Daignault has a brief, sweet moment as he sings a cappella the lovely “Take, O take, those lips away.” It’s one of this show’s few pure and unforced moments.
