By Deanna Dement Myers

 

ArtsEmerson welcomes Cheek by Jowl (UK) and The Pushkin Theatre Moscow (Russia) with Measure for Measure. This production by the international award-winning Director Declan Donnellan and Designer Nick Ormerod asks vital and unsettling questions about how we are governed and, in the process, unmasks the true nature of authority, love and justice. The creative team includes Assistant Director Kirill Sbitnev, Lighting Designer Sergey Skornetskiy, Composer Pavel Akimkin, and Choreographer Irina Kashuba. The limited run of only six performances takes place October 24 through 28, 2018 at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre. Tickets may be purchased at www.ArtsEmerson.org.

 

“The tempter or the tempted, who sins the most?”

 

Power and purity are explored in this production of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. Performed entirely in Russian on a stage bare except for four, enormous, red cubes, this modern interpretation has a stark beauty and a fluid physical presentation that transcends the need to understand the language. Government corruption and licentious behavior is easily understood without the overhead captioning. The entire cast is present during most scenes, gliding at times like a school of fish, at another as a phalanx, with characters and set pieces peeling off and rejoining the array as the scene requires. Part dance and part stagehands, the non-speaking cast members offer commentary and witness, much like a Greek chorus.

Read more “Measure for Measure, a Russian Investigation of Shakespeare’s Problem Play”