| re: Measure for Measure at TFANA | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 07:06 pm EDT 06/29/17 | |
| In reply to: Measure for Measure at TFANA - drummergirl 11:39 pm EDT 06/28/17 | |
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| I love Measure for Measure. I directed a little production of it more years ago than I care to remember, and I had a wonderful time working on it. I first saw it myself in 1976 at the Delacorte. This was during a period when I was a teenage usher there so I saw it a number of times. That production, directed by John Pasquin, deserved better reviews than it got. Apart from Sam Waterston's misguided performance as the Duke (and he later said that he'd really screwed it up), there was much to recommend about it, most of all Lenny Baker's brilliant Lucio. Ms. Streep was good but not as good as you might think as Isabella. John Cazale was quite strange and not at all "Shakespearean" as Angelo, and really very good. Howard Rollins also scored as Pompey. It's pretty amazing to look at the cast list for that production (linked). John Pasquin did some terrific work as a director in the 1970s, much of which was underappreciated. I suppose it's not surprising that the theatre basically lost him to television. I've seen several productions since then, including TFANA's 1996 production, none of which was especially good, even when they had good people in the cast, as the 1989 Newhouse production certainly did. I saw that one early during previews. Perhaps I would have liked it more had I seen it later. Rich panned it in the Times but some of the other reviews were good so I wish I'd seen it later. Of course, my production was excellent. :) I think that the comments below from NewtonUK and whereismikeyfl address the Vienna question at least as well as anything I could say. I suppose that I could add that as far as I know, Vienna is not the setting for any of the play's sources. As for the play, as I'm sure you know, it's always been classified as one of the "problem plays."Like many, probably most, Shakespeare plays, it asks more questions than it answers. IIRC, it's a play that gained a greater degree of popularity during the 20th century than it had previously. I think it's fair to say that it speaks to our time, in part because the questions it raises were questions that people started feeling more free to ask during the 20th century, and those particular questions are very much still with us and don't seem likely to go away any time soon. If you have any specific questions on the play, I'll try to give you my point of view. |
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| Link | Measure for Measure 1976 |
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