Measure4Measure (review)

 Spoilers ahoy!

I have seen William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure at least five times, including the production in which I played a tiny role lo these many year past. 

City Garage's Measure4Measure is not quite that play, although the vast majority of it consists of Shakespeare's writings.  Still, I'm stating outright this is the best production of this "problem play" I have ever seen.

Love getting to write those words.

To start, five of the many, many characters in this rather sprawling "comedy" (back in the day, this word was applied loosely to any play that did not end in massive deaths and devastation, i.e. tragedies) have specific actors assigned to them.  Everyone else is played by two other actors, which not only provides a chance for Kat Johnson and Angela Beyer to really show off their skills, it adds to some laughs to some rather more serious moments and (more importantly) gives these two--as well as Lucio, played/danced brilliantly by Courtney Brechemin (they nearly steal the show, for reals) to sometimes comment on events.

Because, as we hear up front, this is a "problem play."  Which means what?  Essentially, a play by Shakespeare that seems a bit weird, like Cymbeline with a plot so complicated even the title character at one point says "Wait, stop, I'm confused."  Or the deeply dark, cynical love story that crashes, falls over, and burns then starts a minor plague in Troilus and Cressida.  This one has a plot that, frankly, seems more disturbing every single moment one thinks about it.  That three of the performers actually do takes or feel outraged over the supposed hero's actions--i.e. the Duke played with a perfect blend of ruthless myopia by Troy Dunn--really brings this out.  It doesn't take much time out of the main action, just a commentary not unlike (albeit far more pointed) contemporary jokes included in other productions.  

In fact, it is hard in context not to see Shakespeare as exploring some really nasty parts of his own world, as well as ours, sometimes and especially in this play.  In my opinion.

The Duke of Verona decides to go abroad for a bit, leaving his lieutenants, the elderly but kind Escalus (Andy Kallok) and the supremely strict Angelo (Nathan Dana Aldrich or Anthony Sannazzaro depending on the performance) in charge.  He explicitly does this because for the past nineteen years he's been lax on a lot of very strict laws on the books.  As a result, vice is awash.  He pretty clearly intends Angelo especially to crack the whip, then when the Duke returns he will reform matters--thus letting the city blame Angelo for the change, and praise the Duke for making things right.

Richard III had lessons to learn from this guy, who promptly sneaks back into the city in disguise to see how things are going.

Apart from the brothels being closed down and burned, the employees therein punished, etc. there's also the case of a young man named Claudio who has gotten his fiancee Juliet pregnant.  Now, one of the few details we know about Shakespeare's life is that this is precisely how he came to marry his own wife.  Just sayin'  Lucio, our wonderful narrator, goes to see if Claudio's sister Isabel (Naomi Helen Weissberg)--in a subtle pun about to become a sister in a convent--might try and intervene on her brothers' behalf.  She is totally willing, and pleads for mercy as well as Portia ever did.  But...what she does, by her obvious piety and virtue, is inflame Angelo's seemingly-feeble lust, which roars into life a la Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  He eventually, and with difficulty since she seemingly does not and/or refuses to understand his meaning, demands a quid pro quo of her body for Claudio's life.

When the Duke finds out about this, he comes up with a very weird and convoluted plot to rescue Claudio and yet spare Isabel--a solution which is all kinds of problematical, as our cast very vocally notes with their reaction!  In fact, apart from a love of scheming, the Duke seems to believe Isabel but also cannot quite bring himself to believe her at the same time.  Which honestly seems the most realistic moment in the whole play, if one has been paying attention to the real world.

This all gets very complicated, which is in and of itself part of the fun, not least when Angelo orders Claudio put to death anyway and the Duke has to juggle even more balls (or words) to save the young man.  Which he could do so much more easily, it must be said.  Lord this man loves his drama!  More than he loves his justice, certainly.  In fact the entire climax of the play comes across as needlessly cruel and manipulative, a fact most productions try to mitigate against as much as possible.  At the very end--and here I cannot praise Charles A. Duncombe's editing nor Frederique Michel's direction enough--what seems like the perfect ending in terms of theatrical formula lies naked in its exploitation and deceit and casual sadism.  

So...wow.  

Measure4Measure plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 4pm until July 9, 2023 at City Garage, 2525 Michigan Avenue, Building T1, Santa Monica, CA 90404.

Off the Rails (review)

Spoilers ahoy!

Measure for Measure is one of several of Shakespeare's works dubbed "problem plays" by literary experts.  To be fair, plenty of actors and directors agree.  It certainly does not easily fall into one of the neat categories of Comedy, Tragedy or History.  At least it doesn't feel that way.

Off the Rails is based on this "problem play," relocating it in time and space to the Old West. More, it retells the whole story in terms of the Native American experience.  This sounds intriguing, at least to me.  It frankly proved better than expected overall. Randy Reinholz (Choctaw) did the adaptation, and honestly the result ends up uneven.

Let us get the unevenness out of the way right now.  The whole thing keeps having sudden changes of mood and feel, at times to considerable dramatic impact but other times I felt yanked out of the story.  Having Buffalo Bill's Wild  West Show pop up at the end was one, and having it followed by a Native dance was another.  The former felt awkward and the latter felt as if it came out of nowhere.  Methinks the idea behind it is clear, and let me say that idea seems borderline glorious.  But the transition was about as awkward and clumsy as possible.  Nor frankly did it help that much of the show was directed in the style of a rather cheesy production of Oklahomah! I'll also point out the exposition at the start filled me with dread.  It looked little better than a kindergarden play.

PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Schwartz © 2015

Now, though, let me turn to where the play and production not only rose above all that but soared! At its finest this proved in many ways the best Measure for Measure I've ever seen! Start with the how the whole story ends up framed.  The frontier, a place were laws alternate between loose and severe.  Where vast power concentrates in the hands of the very few, with an even greater divide based on race.  Loads of opportunities here, but Rheinholz makes a few dazzling choices.  First and foremost, he eschewed turning the equivalent of Vienna's Duke into the lead.  This proved brilliant!  All of his storyline that makes up the bulk of the play then becomes not about a startlingly good and wise man setting right his realm, but about how an oppressed people meet the challenge of a deeply unjust world. Many of the Duke's lines and actions transfer to Madame Overdone (Shyla Marlin - Choctaw), who also ends up methinks with some variations of lines from Othello's Emilia, cutting ones about women and men. This is good stuff!  Especially since Madame Overdone's salloon singer proves to be none other than Mariana (Adrieanne Perez), placing her in the action from very early on--a stereotype who suddenly becomes a far more complex person in our eyes once we learn anything at all about her.

PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Schwartz © 2015

More, now Isobel (Elizabeth Frances - Cherokee) becomes an even more powerful character than she is in the original!  Not least because there's no one to offer answers to her dilema, no vastly powerful figure in disguise rendering aid.  The Duke, as I said, is gone.  She's left on her own in the face of Captain Angelo's self-righteousness and racist lust (Michael Matthys), threatening her brother's life and her own chastity.  The scenes between these two rivet with horror, not least because unlike with Shakespeare's play, we don't see a deus ex machina in sight. 

Parenthetically, I must point out the blocking in these scenes sometimes really interferes.  These actors prove themselves very capable of filling stillness with radiant power.  Wish they were given more chance to do so!

Likewise, the Claudio character now rises as well!  Shaun Taylor-Corbett (Blackfeet) as Momaday becomes less a background stock character and more of a tragic hero, even given lines from the male half of Romeo

PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Schwartz © 2015

and Juliet. More than his life turns out to be at stake. His identity is under attack, as it has been since childhood, as the Whites have sought to "Kill the Indian, save the Man" by eradicating Native culture.  That he fell in love with an Irish girl (Emily Lenkeit) who wed him in a Choctaw ceremony but begged him to do the same in a Christian one brings out more of what makes the original a "problem play."  It doesn't give simple answers.  What after all really is justice?  How does one decide what to do when there aren't any good choices?  Does mercy extend only to those whom you like or are like you?  Should it? Can it?


As noted earlier, the whole production remains uneven, but I strongly recommend audiences to go anyway. This play rises to the level of resplendent more than a few times.  The leads do wonders with their roles, and more than once my heart felt pierced with the pain of these characters.

Off the Rails performs Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 8pm, Saturdays and Sundays at 2pm until March 15, 2015 at the Wells Fargo Theater in The Autry Museum in Griffith Park.