Quintessence Theatre's "Measure For Measure'

Philadelphia's professional theaters managed just one Shakespeare production last year (the Lantern's Hamlet). But last week alone, Philadelphians had their choice of five. I caught three: the Lantern's straightforward though dull staging of Henry IV, Part I; Curio Theatre's horribly directed though visually and conceptually slick "steampunk" Twelfth Night; and the new Quintessence Theatre Group's rendition of Measure for Measure.

This latter company, led by Alex Burns, says it seeks to find in Shakespeare and the classics ways to "energize the audience" by revitalizing and updating them as works for contemporary masses.

In choosing Measure for Measure, Burns eased his company's first at-bat considerably. In its themes and questions, this morality play stands as Shakespeare's most timeless, probing issues of what type of person should wield power and how should he exercise it, what role should government undertake in buttressing the ethical lives of its citizens, and whether mercy represents (as Measure's Isabella attests) the highest virtue of justice. It offers moral hard-line hypocrites—from New York's former Governor Eliot Spitzer to the Evangelical Pastor Ted Haggard—an opportunity to see exactly what type of human needs a system of justice that affords mercy.

Breaking Vienna's laws

To achieve his contemporizing goals, Burns's direction began by updating Measure's Viennese setting. In a silent, sharply lit prologue, we see the offending couple Claudio and Juliet consummating a New Year's Eve proposal while wearing a tux and evening gown, then returning nine months later, she pregnant and both dressed in orange prison jumpsuits for their mug shots.

Their crime? They've broken Vienna's laws against premarital sex, for which Claudio now faces execution.

Unfortunately, Burns lets this initial concept fizzle out. He puts his nuns (Isabella and her superior) in full habits that only a few orders now don. Jane Casanave's costumes dress the government officials to look like European cabinet ministers, but the remainder of the production takes a straightforward and uninventive approach.

Burns concentrates his blocking on the corners of the stage, obscuring the sightlines for many in the audience (I had the worst seat in the house). But otherwise, his staging and cuts capture the argumentative nature of the play, as his players push one another around like pieces in a chess match. Like the concepts of Measure's text, there's no middle ground in this play or production to muddy the clarity of consequence.

Nun's anguish

In any case, this Measure succeeds on strong acting alone. When we first meet Isabella, Joy Farmer-Clary's stone expression and stolid movements embody the detail of her strict convent. But as the consequences of her actions and attitudes grind down her will, she unleashes a torrent of rage and anguish that grounds the script's emotional core.

All the minor characters exceed the expectations of their roles, whether through John G Williams's pimpish verve in playing Lucio, or the forthright sincerity of Jennifer Hutten's slighted Mariana. Damon Bonetti's performance doesn't completely clarify the motivations of a Duke who would abdicate his power, but his charm and jocularity add enough balancing humor to replace the cuts to the script.

Eyes that speak

But the evening rightly belongs to James Stover's lecherous Angelo. When in public, he possesses the polished poise of a perpetual press conference, enunciating his every word and phrase with perfect diction. In private, his posture bends at the hip, his eyes alight, and though Isabella is covered head to foot in her nun's habit, when he looks her up and down, we see what his desire imagines.

Based on this first production, Quintessence and its mission to restore the classics make a welcome addition in Philadelphia. But Burns can't expect to save the Bard from irrelevance with good acting in every show. It will take a bold, capable, and imaginative director to update a revenge drama like, say, Titus Andronicus in a way that reflects modern life. Otherwise, why not just rent Charles Bronson in Death Wish?