Shakespeare’s Measure For Measure comes to Mold

Apr 11 2008 by Michael Green, Flintshire Chronicle

It’s a great big thriller, full of blood and gore and some great comedy, too. That’s what you need to put in your newspaper!”

So says Philip Breen and he should know because right at this moment there is probably no one more clued up on the virtues of William Shakespeare’s Measure For Measure than this man.

For after a distinguished career as a theatre director, Breen is taking the helm of a Bard classic for the first time as he brings one of Shakespeare’s notorious ‘problem’ plays to the Emlyn Williams Theatre at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold.

For centuries after Shakespeare’s death, Measure For Measure was a neglected work but once the 20th century dawned and life became ever more political, it ended up being constantly revived by directors eager to use it to comment on society.

Such fascination with its themes continues into the 21st and Breen himself admits to a life-long interest in the Viennese set story.

“Measure For Measure is a modern play in many ways. All of Shakespeare’s plays seem to come into orbit at particular times and this one seems to have done so right now.

“This deals with the dilemma of which law should you obey – the law of the land or the law of God, especially when those two things come into conflict with each other.

“It was only a few weeks ago that the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams was talking about this precise subject.”

And if a discussion of sharia law in today’s Britain wasn’t enough to give Measure For Measure contemporary relevance, the Americans certainly thought Bill Clinton’s much publicised encounter with Monica Lewinsky had echoes in Shakespeare’s writing.

The play enjoyed a healthy revival in the USA during the 1990s as audiences drew parallels with the play’s plot in which a politically powerful leader tries to use his position to gain sexual favours from a young girl.

Breen thinks this is stretching the point somewhat but concedes that such modern readings of the play’s themes help to keep it bang up to date.

But he also admits to having to rise to quite a few challenges as he attempts to bring his own version of the work to the stage.

“It is a play where you have to listen as there are a lot of quite brilliant and complex arguments. The play is basically a series of trial scenes and each character speaks on such subjects and it is difficult to unpack and unravel that when we no longer live in an aural culture. Shakespearean audiences were more used to such speechifying.”

It’s most controversial plot development has the virtuous Isabella throw herself on the mercy of powerfully corrupt Angelo who has condemned her brother Claudio to death for impregnating his fiancée before marriage. Angelo agrees to spare Claudio only if Isabella agrees to surrender her virginity to him.

“This may be a difficult concept for modern audiences to accept,” admitted Breen. “These days, it may not seem like such a big choice and people might feel she should just get on with it and sleep with Angelo if it means saving her brother’s life.’

Another potential problem with this ‘problem’ play is that virtually all the characters are deeply flawed. The main protagonist is the Duke who gives Angelo such power to begin with because he is too weak to clean up his immoral society himself. And Isabella is dismayed when Claudio seems quite happy to see her deflowered in exchange for his freedom.

But Breen sees no dilemma in identifying with such dodgy individuals: “We’re all a bit dodgy. Shakespeare wrote about human beings. The most beautiful thing happens at the end when everyone gathers in a Viennese street early in the morning. They all deserve whipping and hanging but what they get is redemption.”

As well presenting Mold audiences with the likes of Cariad, Two Princes, Suddenly Last Summer and The Birthday Party, Breen has a full time role at Clwyd Theatr Cymru as director of new writing.

“This means seeing a lot of new plays and having meetings with a lot of new writers. We are currently looking at co-productions with the Hampstead Theatre in London and Sherman Cymru as well as doing something else with Jonathan Lichtenstein who did Memory here.”

He has no regrets about leaving it until well into his career before tackling the Bard, stressing that he wanted to do justice to Shakespeare when he finally got around to it and he now harbours ambitions to take on the ‘biggies’ like Hamlet and Lear.

But for now he is happy to reintroduce audiences to his “great big thriller” which he has brought forward to the turn of the 19th century but has otherwise left untouched: “We have not altered a single work - we have been working fully from the folio.”

Measure For Measure can be seen in the Emlyn Williams Theatre at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold until Saturday, May 3. Ring the box office on 0845 330 3565 or visit www.clwyd-theatr-cymru.co.uk.