BWW Reviews: MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Union Theatre, July 5 2013

Early in their studies, law students are told of the difference between "the law in action and the law in books" - or how discretion in the application of rules, regulations, indeed the whole infrastructure of govermance, lies at the heart of the English Common Law. In Measure for Measure (at the Union Theatre until 27 July), Shakespeare explores this exercise of discretion in execution of statecraft in one of his more problematic plays.

The Duke (Nicholas Osmond) leaves his hardline deputy Angelo (Paul Critoph) in charge of Vienna while he goes undercover as a monk to observe how his state will fare when his benign, hands-off approach is replaced by the authoritarian, heads-off approach favoured by Angelo. Quoting the law like a religious zealot, Angelo condemns Claudio (Luke Jenkins) to death for impregnating his lover before completing all the (widely hitherto ignored) formalities of marriage, but soon has to face his own demons as Claudio's sister, Isabella (Daisy Ward), pleads for her brother's life and arouses rather more than Angelo's sympathy.

Phil Willmott has set his production in the 1930s, with the whiff of Weimar around the whorehouse (especially in the opening sequences, staged as a mini-promenade through a brothel) and there's the impending catastrophe of the Anschluss looming every time the state wobbles. Though the setting underpins the play's central questions, they are as relevant today as ever.

Nicholas Osmond's Duke is noble in bearing, but appears to see his role as an intellectual game rather than a matter of life and death, only catching his falling dukedom in the nick of time. Paul Critoph's sweating hypocrite, Angelo, exemplifies Wilhelm Reich's hypothesis that the roots of fascism are anchored in sexual repression, as he hides lascivious desire behind purtanical ravings. There's good support from a company of hookers and hangers-on, with Rikki Lawton splendid as the lying lawyer Lucio, but the standout is Daisy Ward, whose Isabella exudes allure while somehow managing to convince everyone (including the audience) of her commitment to chastity.

I always treat Shakespeare as entertainment before all else, throwing myself back 400 years to imagine myself a punter in the spit and sawdust of the Elizabethan theatre - and judge his works accordingly. While Measure for Measure is absorbing, it isn't satisfying as entertainment - there are too many equivocations in the characters of the goodies and the baddies are too hideous or too broadly comical to be complex and empathetic. Rosendale Productions are to be applauded for meeting the challenge of staging the work (especially in creating so many different environments in so small a space) and they get as much right as can be expected, given Shakespeare's curiously amoral, somewhat open-ended, plotting.

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