DIRECTING

 MEASURE FOR MEASURE

By William Shakespere

Performed at Cottiers Theatre
Directed by Lucie Hall

In collaboration with the Glasgow University Shakespere Society

In Vienna, Duke Vincentio has left on matters of state, leaving his puritanical Deputy Angelo in charge. Angelo immediately enforces laws banning all sin and sentences Claudio to execution for conceiving a child with his fiancé before they are married.

But when Claudio’s sister Isabella goes to petition Angelo for her brother’s release, she is surprised to find the pious zealot lusting after her and offering her brother’s life in exchange for her body. Can she find a way to save her brother without surrendering herself? Perhaps, with the help of Angelo’s jilted fiancé, a bawd mistress and a strangely mysterious Friar.

Set against a backdrop of puritanical tyranny, in a time where we are very much feeling the after effects of similar upheaval, this dark comedy (some might say the original dark comedy) brings Shakespeare’s notorious ‘Problem Play’ into a new era, examining it against the backdrop of Me Too and the continuing fight for female empowerment.