Measure For Measure

Another on my list of Shakespeare plays to see. I booked months ago for the Almeida production as it is only a very small theatre. And with (deserved) great reviews for Rory Kinnear and Anna Maxwell Martin, I was not disappointed.

I started off on a mild and sunny late Thursday afternoon to drive through north London and park on an Islington back road off Upper Street. It was a pretty busy place. It was the second time for me at the Almeida Theatre, having seen a superb production of Hedda Gabler there in 2005. My seat could not be better, eight rows back with a great, uninterrupted view of the stage. Measure For Measure was performed in modern dress and this worked really well.

Rory Kinnear was outstanding as the repressed nerd Angelo, who when presented with temporary rule, turns into a nasty authoritarian hypocrite. Anna Maxwell Martin is equally brilliant as his nemesis Isabella. The play is not really a comedy, but Lloyd Hutchinson as Lucio steals the show with a fabulous comic turn. The direction is top drawer and Michael Attenborough has brought a fresh and modern understanding to what has been described as a problem play.

There are many scenes with only a couple of actors on the stage, which works really well in such an intimate setting. And when the stage does get crowded, the scenery comes into it's own. A wall across the stage splits in two and each section revolves to give endless combinations. A street, a prison, an office of state, the city walls, this is just the best stage management you could see. At the end of one scene, the walls close slowly to a darkened stage while Juliet gradually disappears into the light at the back. Magical.