THEATRE: MEASURE FOR MEASURE

At the pub last night, a heated discussion about Measure for Measure took place. “I heart it,” said one friend, “I loved it,” said another. As the night wore on, and loosened by liquor, those statements became spiced with, “I was actually more just whelmed,” that is, neither over nor underwhelmed. It’s a telling response to something that is both one of Shakespeare’s lesser known plays, by one of Australia’s most renowned directors, Benedict Andrews. In it, a police state governed by the two-faced Angelo becomes a hotbed of greed, lust and injustice when Claudio is sentenced to death for fornication. Meddler and saggy-bum party boy Lucio (a convincing Toby Schmitz) sends in Claudio’s chaste sister Isabella (Robin McLeavy) to persuade Angelo. Unsurprisingly, when presented with a hot and desperate virgin, Angelo’s purported morals go out the window. With some whores, pimps, drunken crooks and dukes-in-disguise thrown in for good, ahem, measure, this is a surprisingly compelling and sexy story trading on its own adage; “Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.” The same could be said of the production’s ambitious if not-new technical ambits; a rotating stage, two screens with concurrent filming of the action. These are tricks we feel we’ve seen before; most recently at the Sydney Festival’s German production Hamlet, for instance. This is no coincidence – Andrews spent some time with Schaubühne Berlin, the theatre company responsible. But with such a strong story, told by such strong actors, were these flourishes really necessary? Were they conceptual, or merely aesthetic? “It’s because it’s a surveillance society!” claimed my friend, still defending till the end. “The mild motion-sickeness … it’s meant to unsettle,” enjoins another. Perhaps, but with my attention trained firmly on the flesh and blood, I didn’t even notice.

Until Jul 25, Belvoir St Upstairs, 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills, $35-57, 9699 3444, belvoir.com.au