Tag: shakespeare

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Shakespearean Disappointment

Phoebe McKellar (Juliet) and Theo Dāvid (Romeo) Photo: Andi Crown

Review by Malcolm Calder

Romeo and Juliet

By William Shakespeare

Auckland Theatre Company

Director – Benjamin Kilby-Henson

Design – Dan Williams

Lighting – Filament Eleven 11

Costumes – Daniella Salazar

Sound – Robin Kelly

With Ryan Carter, Liam Coleman, Theo Dāvid, Courteney Eggleton, Jesme Faa’auuga, Isla Mayo, Miriama McDowell, Phoebe McKellar, Jordan Mooney, Meramanji Odedra, Beatriz Romilly and Amanda Tito

Waterfront Theatre – until 9 August

Review by Malcolm Calder

This is a brave attempt by ATC to broaden its audience base and provide a path for younger performers.  And when you’re doing that, a good Shakespeare is a fairly safe bet as it can probably do quite well with younger audiences, meet the needs of traditional adherents and will no doubt fare well with a schools audience.  And ATC is to be acknowledged for that.

Unfortunately, when one looks at the larger theatrical picture, this Romeo and Juliet doesn’t really fare very well.  Especially as a major production by one of this country’s more significant professional companies.  However ATC’s production standards remain fairly high and are arguably this production’s saving grace. 

This Romeo and Juliet is set in a 1960s Verona and I get that – not such a silly idea.  The the overall design is consistent and sometimes works very well indeed with the themes Director Benjamin Kilby-Henson is articulating – youth, love and lyricism.  Chapeaus are due to the entire creative team and his production looks and feels quite stunning.

Dan Williams has generated a well-executed, three-dimensional set, largely articulated with reductive arches, derived some mobility from a well-used billiard table and unusually introduced what looks like a painter’s scaffold that trucks about a Veronian ballroom that is ‘under renovation’ and elsewhere too.  It makes for a splendidly unusual balcony scene.

I wasn’t in Verona in the 1960s, however I did own a pair of vertically-striped trousers a decade later, so I give costumier Daniella Salazar’s costumes a big thumbs up too.  Her use of colour is at times subtle and nuanced and the differences she has drawn between Montague and Capulet families are finely drawn.  Of particular note is the ballroom scene.

But it was the lighting and the soundscape that were the standouts for me.   The Filament 11 designers have introduced some dramatic and highly effective lighting that echoes the sentiments of Shakespeare’s words and the emotions highlighted by the director.  It is also pleasing to see ATC using effective sound reinforcement for actors who often spend more time in front of cameras and on more intimate venues these days than on the comparatively largish Waterfront’s stage.

However, Miriama McDowell aside, the cast struggled with Shakepeare’s words, couplet-ridden though they are

In fact, the whole casting process seemed somehow –  odd.  Generational differences were blurred, there was a rather strange mix of accents, some characters seemed to fit the context while others didn’t, and I’m still trying to work out why there were so many varied approaches.

Music may be the food of love but, as the director has noted, poetic verse is its very life force. Romeo only addresses Juliet in verse and she does likewise.  But sustaining this is very difficult indeed.

Apart from occasional flashes, especially with some of the longer speeches, the net result was one where authority and credibility were just – missing.   At one point it seemed like I was watching a youth company of younger kiwis imagining a Verona they had never visited.   

Miriama McDowell (Whaea Lawrence), however, was very much the exception, actually speaking Shakespeare’s words rather than matching the prevalent declamations of others. Theo Dāvid (Romeo) matched her to some extent leading one to wonder whether their work with the now-long-gone Popup Globe had anything to do with this.

There were a number of unanswered quibbles too: why, for example, did Friar Lawrence became a ‘Whaea’ in this production.  If this really were set in 1960s Tauranga and there two gangs at war with each other it could make sense.  But it is a term never uttered in in Verona in the 1960s.  And perhaps a bit of undersheet nudity was a way of  the simpering unreality of Paris, but that didn’t work for me either.

So thanks for the effort ATC.  But Romeo and Juliet was a disappointment for me.

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Shakespeare in the Park: A cold blooded tragedy and a highly promising comedy

Auckland Shakespeare in the Park 2025

A Shoreside Theatre production

Pumphouse Amphitheatre

(if wet – Pumphouse Theatre)

Richard III

By William Shakespeare

Dir Catherine Boniface

Jan 22, 23, 24, 28, 31, Feb 1, 5, 6, 9, 11, 13, 15

The Taming of the Shrew

By William Shakespeare

Dir Mags Delaney-Moffat

Jan 23, 29, 30, Feb 4, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14

Review by Malcolm Calder

22 January 2024

Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Chris Raven) surrounded by his friends, perceived rivals
and even some who survived his ascension to the throne

Tragedy is a commonly used euphemism in theatre for when lots of people die.  Richard III doesn’t quite reach Titus proportions, but it has to be up there and this particular production is in good company.

It is part of Shoreside Theatre’s annual Shakespeare in the Park series, now in its 29th iteration, and staged at the delightful, terraced, outdoor amphitheatre adjacent to Lake Pupuke at Takapuna’s Pumphouse theatre.

Rather than try and recreate Shakespeare’s historical setting and fail, Director Catherine Boniface has chosen to locate her Richard III in a seedy but sartorially splendid 1930s London.  Her program notes suggest the setting is reminiscent of Peaky Blinders – and, yes, there were some artfully angled flat caps on display.  Gangland in a word.  It works too, largely because it is analogously appropriate to the dastardly deeds that Richard, Duke of Gloucester got up to towards the end of the the English Civil Wars.

I won’t even begin to list all the deaths he generates.  Suffice to say it’s a lot – one might even suggest he ‘eliminated’ his way to the top.  And misogynistically too because, as far as I recall, all those who died were males.  Something to do with lineage in those dastardly days when York’s rose challenged that of Lancaster and the distaff lines were those who suffered the pain and of loss.

Richard, of course, received his final comeuppance and the reference to Leicester reminded me that his remains were eventually discovered under a carpark there only 15 years ago.

Chris Rather played Richard with a suavely cool and assured arrogance, his ambition plainly on display, and even his disintegrating final days were well handled.  He was a standout for me in 2024’s Measure for Measure and it was good to see him progress to the Richard role.  The supporting roles more than served to enhance and focus attention on Richard’s dominance but the standout for me this time was Suzie Sampson as Lady Margaret – subtle, nuanced and very, very professional.

The period setting on a simple stage is fairly stark but allowed the inclusion of some delightful props – the wooden Lancaster bomber, the pistols and, of course, the costumes.  I could swear the ghoulishly severed head with spectacles intact was still dripping blood.  Although I did wonder if the prominently held and waved cigarettes may have in fact been vapes.

On balance, another competent and highly entertaining part of the Shakespeare in the Park series.

Conversely the comedic Taming of the Shrew is the very antithesis of Richard.  Its content, gender-neutral casting and the fact that it is performed by what is effectively Shoreside’s youth company mean it would be facetious to compare the two.

Katerina (Matilda Chua) and Petrucio (Heather Warne) in The Taming of the Shrew

The plot itself of Shrew is well-known.  In overly-simple words, Lucentio loves Bianca but cannot court her until her shrewish older sister Katerina marries. The eccentric Petrucio marries the reluctant Katerina and uses guile and trickery to render her an obedient wife.  Lucentio marries Bianca and, in a contest at the end, Katerina proves to be a most obedient wife.  The end !

There is probably a moral in there somewhere but the play is almost like a minefield for actors with cross-cuts of double entendre, split-second timing and that all important factor – suspension of disbelief. Shrew calls for a closer understanding of, and appreciation of the nuance in Shakespeare’s words coupled with the timing that is essential to pull this off revealing the farce beneath.  Without them the humour just doesn’t work.

And that is where director Mags Delaney-Moffat is to be congratulated on clearly focussing her youthful and highly-promising cast.  They work as an ensemble, there are laughs aplenty and the work that has gone into achieving them is clearly on display.  

It would seem churlish to single out anyone but the work of Heather Warne (Petrucio) is almost upstaged at times by the wit, humour and general antics, and indeed the timing and presence, of Lizzie Morris as her ‘man’-servant Grumio.  And, despite a demure start, Matilda Chua (Katerina) grows in confidence as true love with Petrucio eventually blossoms.

But there are many highlights and both director and cast are to be congratulated.

The annual two-play Shoreside season is now firmly established on the Auckland theatrical calendar in this, its 29th season.

Note: If wet, transfers indoors.

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ATC’s six plays for 2025

John Daly-Peoples

Murder on the Orient Express

AUCKLAND THEATRE COMPANY 2025 SEASON

John Daly-Peoples

Auckland Theatre Company have announced their 2025 Season of six plays ranging from Shakespeare’s 400-year-old Romeo and Juliet to Roger Halls latest.

These plays include two world premieres, an Auckland premiere, and a translation of a one of the classics. The productions will be directed by some of the country’s best talent including Shane Bosher, Oliver Driver, Benjamin, Alison Quigan QSM and Katie Wolfe,

The Plays

a mixtape for maladies
by Ahi Karunaharan
4 – 23 Mar
Ahi Karunaharan’s talesweeps from 1950s Sri Lanka to modern-day Aotearoa. Directed by Jane Yonge (Scenes from a Yellow Peril) this is both a love letter to Sri Lanka and a lament, the story plays out over 17 songs – ranging from Dusty Springfield to La Bamba to the hit single from a Tamil rom-com.

A collaboration between Agaram Productions, Auckland Theatre Company and Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival.

Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express
Adapted for the stage by Ken Ludwig
22 Apr – 10 May
The classic that birthed an entire genre comes to the stage with Cameron Rhodes (King Lear, North by Northwest) as the inscrutable Hercule Poirot, supported by Rima Te Wiata, Sophie Henderson, Ryan O’Kane and Mayen Mehta. This play was adapted for the stage by Tony-nominated playwright Ken Ludwig and is directed by Shane Bosher.

Roger Hall’s End of Summer Time
17 Jun – 5 Jul
New Zealand’s most successful playwright Sir Roger Hall brings back one of his most famous characters, Dickie Hart who made his first appearance almost 30 years ago in C’mon Black. This is an affectionate and hilarious skewering of an old grump who realises he still has a lot to learn about the world when he moves to Auckland to be closer to his grandkids. Directed by theatre stalwart Alison Quigan, the play sees Andrew Grainger (Peter Pan, North by Northwest) bringing his big-hearted comedic talent to this solo show that like, all of Hall’s plays, has more than a little bite to it.

William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
15 Jul – 9 Aug
William Shakespeare’s tale of passion and heartbreak is recast as a fast-paced thriller in this large-scale production of Romeo and Juliet, directed by the co-director of 2023’s runaway hit King Lear, Benjamin Kilby-Henson. Theo Dāvid (Shortland Street) and Phoebe McKellar (One Lane Bridge) make their Auckland Theatre Company debuts as the star-crossed lovers in a Missoni and Pucci-inspired take on 1960s’ Italy, supported by a stellar cast including Bronwyn Bradley, Miriama McDowell and Beatriz Romilly. As potent today as it was when written more than four centuries ago, this tragedy celebrates the triumph of love over hate.

Mary

MARY: The Birth of Frankenstein
by Jess Sayer
19 Aug – 7 Sep
A villa in Switzerland, in the dark winter of 1816. Mary Shelley stands over a bloodied corpse and knows her words are to blame. The script, written by award-winning playwright Jess Sayer in collaboration with Oliver Driver, builds on the bones of history to re-imagine the events of the infamous night that birthed one of the most famous novels of all time: Frankenstein. In Mary: The Birth of Frankenstein, co-created and directed by Oliver Driver (Amadeus), the production transforms from a parlour drama into an unsettling, drug-fueled, lust-drenched Gothic horror as Shelley, played by Olivia Tennet, casts off the men who seek to control her and steps from childhood into life.

Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking

TIRI: TE ARAROA WOMAN FAR WALKING
by Witi Ihimaera
4 – 23 Nov
The Season closes out with a history-making new adaptation of the epic tale of Tiri Mahana, a 185-year-old matriarch, from her birth at the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi to present day Aotearoa. For the first time, the play will be performed in two parts, English and te reo Māori, with both versions capturing the enduring spirit of Te Ao Māori. With the multi-award-winning team of The Haka Party Incident creator Katie Wolfe (Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Tama) and actor Miriama McDowell (Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi); Witi Ihimaera’s (Te Whanau a Kai and Ngāti Porou) extraordinary play will shine once again, re-imagined in te reo Māori by Maioha Allen and company.

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The dark world of “Hamlet” from Opera Australia

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Act I Hamlet Image Keith Saunders

Opera Australia

Hamlet,

Brett Dean , Music

Matthew Jocelyn, Libretto 

Until August 9

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

“or not to be “, are the first lines we hear from Hamlet in Opera Australia’s latest offering by composer Brett Dean and librettist Matthew Jocelyn. They are of course a clip from one of the plays most well know soliloquies – “To be or not to be, that is the question”.

That question is

“Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles”

In other words act now or prevaricate.

Hamlet never answers his own question and delays taking action to revenge the death of his father. In a typical revenge tragedy of the time that revenge would be quickly and simply exacted but his  equivocation is a sign of his own mental illness or his inconsistent political decision-making which ultimately leads to the death of multiple individuals.

Hamlet doesn’t even speak the words of the soliloquy that is left to a player from the theatre troupe, later in the play.

The opera explores questions of Hamlet’s mental state, how it impacts on his relationship with other members of court, his friends and his betrothed, Ophelia.

Librettist Mathew Jocelyn has done this by cleverly concentrating on some key lines and phrases while Brett Dean has produced a musical landscape which creates moods, emotional portraits and dramatic moments. The score is largely percussion with raw and unusual sounds along with traditional instruments pushed to their limits, providing an edginess and inventiveness to the work.

Director Neil Armfield has realised the visions of Dean and Jocelyn with an impressive production employing a stellar class including Allan Clayton who has performed the leading role at Glyndebourne and the Met. This is an opera which seems as relevant today as it was 400 years ago.

The opening scene, which is replicated in the final duel scene is the main hall in Elsinore where the new King Claudius and Gertrude enter for a banquet. Hamlet, looking remarkably like Peter Jackson  prowls the room in his ‘inky cloak’, gets his own bottle of wine and makes sharp comments about his mother and new father. Along with his brusque complaints there is also a playfulness when he greets his friends Horatio and Marcellus

One becomes aware of the conflict within the work. Is Hamlet actually mad or is it a ploy  which he uses. There are a number of scenes where the theme of pretence, subterfuge  and acting are cleverly developed by Jocelyn. This  notion of reality and artifice is seen at its most powerful in the Players scene where Hamlet adds some lines to the fictional “Murder of Gonzaga” play.

.One of the clever approaches that Jocelyn uses is to repeat particular words and phrases, giving emphasis to them so they become striking mantras

Allan Clayton’s Hamlet is very different from most theatrical versions, there is little that is princely or all that perceptive about him – he is a man burdened with a task, angry with most of those about him and lacking in empathy. He is in a dark world of his own making and that is conveyed through Brett Deans oppressive and stressful music.

It conveys something of the internal melancholy of Hamlet and Clayton’s rough tenor makes one aware of his struggles as he flails physically and vocally with his feelings and (in) actions. His approach to revenge is insipid compared to the pesky Laertes (Nicholas Jones) who leaps at the opportunity of dispatching Hamlet.

Much of Hamlet, as with many of Shakespeare’s plays is focussed on the nature and the future of the royal family and by implication, the future of the state, with reference to the  legitimacy of Claudius and Gertrude and the rottenness of the state of Denmark.

Hamlet (Allan Clayton) and Ghost of his Father (Jud Arthur) Image Keith Saunders

Many of the scenes are brilliantly staged. When the ghost of his father (Jud Arthur) appears to Hamlet it is in a surreal setting worthy of Salvador Dali. The Frankenstein-like figure moves slowly across the stage, a beam of light cuts across the stage from a door giving onto a misty swirling nether world. The ghost tells Hamlet of the need for revenge as the quivering woodwinds and tentative percussion aid his growling voice. The relationship between the two becomes particularly  physical as the two embrace.

Lorina Gore’s  Ophelia gives a splendid performance as she expressed love, confusion and ultimately madness. Her performance was particularly touching in her mad scene where, having strewn herbs around the stage, she proceeded to beat her breast and used her strangled voice along with the sharp strings of the orchestra to convey her fragile mental state. Her cries were accompanied by a small female chorus situated high in the boxes who initially shouted their concerns but then became a choir of angels.

Ophelia (Lorina Gore), Guildenstern (Christopher Lowery) & Rosencrantz (Russell Harcourt) Image Keith Saunders

Rod Gilfry as the guilty Claudius stepping into his new role as king was able to convey his own ambivalent position with a voice which ranged from the rough to the benign while Catherine Carby’s Gertrude duets with her son and Ophelia were taut with genuine feeling.

Kanen Breen’s supercilious bureaucrat, Polonius was excellent with his finger clicking insistence, and Samuel Dundas as Horatio, the only likable character in the opera, gave an intelligent and perceptive performance.

Most of the characters were white faced, as though already embalmed but it was Jud Arthurs monstrous, white figure and his penetrating bass which made the most impression. Arthur was also magnificent as the cocky, philosophical Gravedigger.

The two foppish counter tenors, Rosencrantz (Russell Harcourt) and Guildenstern (Christopher Lowrey) looking like the artwork, Gilbert and George added an element of comedy as well another dimension to the notion of artifice.

The set designed by Ralph Myers with its changing structures was something of a metaphor for the changing veneers, masks and stratagems of the characters while the lighting by Peter Harrison provided many moments of visual drama.

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Not King Lear: A sophisticated play addressing social and personal issues

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Auckland Arts Festival

Open stage: Not King Lear

Hobson Street Theatre Company

Until March 10

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Goethe once noted that “Ein alter Mann ist stets ein König Lear” – an old man is a King Lear, meaning that the problems which Lear faced were the same for all old men.

Lear’s problems were not necessarily of his own making as events and people conspired to take advantage of him and he found himself virtually alone, deprived of home, authority and family.

This gradual loss of place in society is central to a new play “Not King Lear” which is directed by Adrain Jackson who has worked for many years Royal Shakespeare Company and with people experiencing street homelessness in London

In this latest play he has created a playful yet serious retelling of the story of an old man in conflict with his children, who gives away his authority and falls into homelessness and mental ill-health.

“Not King Lear” has had input from and is performed by members of the Hobson Street Theatre Company which works in partnership with the Auckland City Mission, with an aim to tell stories that are based on real life experiences, addressing social issues.

There is level of sophistication to the play  that is rewarding both in terms of the ideas it explores about relationships and homelessness but also in its approach to theatre.

In making use of Shakespeare’s original text, they are able to background some of the issues with a few passages from the play and some brief character and plot outlines. They present most of the Act I dialogue of the speeches of the three sisters which includes the powerful speech by  Lear.

The cast also use this as an opportunity for jokes about the characters with Regan being referred to as Vegan and Cordelia as Corduroy. There are other parts of the play which are dealt with in a light hearted and ironic way while others are eloquent and insightful.

The players are uneven in their acting skills but there is a passion and honesty to all the performances which make for a rewarding theatrical experience. Some of the actors are brilliant with the one playing Lear providing a profound and expressive interpretation of the character.

The play has elements of Shakespeare’s approach to drama with the idea of the play within play as we see in Hamlet or Midsummers Nights Dream while another sequence features is a Men’s Group which touches on the issue of estrangement.

The audience participation is at a very different level. Early on the audience was asked to take out their cell phones, divided up into groups who then have to find things on their phones which will get used later in the show. So people had to search for Branch, Climate change, Storm and Trumpet. These then  became the source of sounds which audience could then contribute to the soundscape. So when the King first appears the Trumpets let their trumpets blast away.

There is some very effective staging as in the final sequences where projected images of the mean streets of Auckland are used as a counterpoint to Lear’s blasted heath and the filmed images of the homeless pushing shopping trolleys is replicated with a shopping trolley being moved around the stage.

The inclusion of this work by the Hobson Street Theatre Company alongside international productions in the Auckland Arts Festival is to be commended and shows that New Zealand theatre has a crucial role to play in addressing social and personal issues as well as reaching new audiences. 

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Romeo and Juliet. An entertaining theatrical production of a theatrical production

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Natasha Daniel as Juliet

Romeo and Juliet

By William Shakespeare

Pop Up Globe Company

Director David Lawrence

SkyCity Theatre, Auckland

Until 25 February

Review by Malcolm Calder

After a brief, and apparently successful, season of Twelfth Night at Q Theatre last year, Pop Up Globe Shakespeare Company has popped back up again in 2024.  This time with one of Shakespeare’s safest classics Romeo and Juliet running in a brief back-to-back season with a remounted Twelfth Night, at the larger SkyCity Theatre.

This venue is a far cry from the company’s heyday in the scaffolded pseudo-replica behind the Q Theatre, followed by 3 years in the leafy environs of Ellerslie.  Romeo and Juliet makes the transition well and the house-full sign was out for Opening Night.

This is rumbustious theatre with the primary aim of entertaining people.  And if it manages to change a few minds that’s a bonus.  The Opening Night Romeo and Juliet audience was an interesting and highly-varied bunch with a huge age spread and attending for many different reasons.  Not unlike the audiences at Ellerslie. Nor, come to think of it, many of Shakespeare’s own audiences.

This one ranged from boomers to their grandchildren and all points in between. There were probably some serious Shakespearean afficionados, but many seemed to be longstanding Globe-converts along with some who were just looking for a good entertaining night out, rather than a draining one with significant mental effort required to ‘understand’ often subjective new work.

David Lawrence’s Romeo and Juliet certainly had something for everyone.  No longer in the scaffold-replica Globe, he has developed a close-knit ensemble that works and moved them around both the stage and the theatre itself so that they came to own the joint. This resulted in part of the audience being on stage, and the actors spending a fair bit of time in the auditorium.

More importantly and perhaps significantly, he achieved this with a cast that largely exuded strength. Today, holding a large-ish room for a long-ish time is an effort for many actors  –  even more so when the language and its Shakespearean rhythms are pretty important and this cast manages to do so almost uniformly. Juliet’s balcony speech(Natasha Daniel) is a great example, accentuated by her very location in the theatre.  Her clarity and power was something shared throughout the ensemble.  No spoiler alert about where she was though.

In fact, all the more serious characters hold their ground well, and set things up for others to generate a load of belly-laughs.  Let’s face it, pretty much everyone knows that R&J is rife with deaths, so why not play the lead-up to them comedically.  Keeps the masses entertained y’know.  And while we’re about it, let’s make the deaths a bit gory and gruesome as well!  So it’s perhaps no accident that the ticketing categorisation for this Romeo and Juliet avoids the conventional header ‘Theatre, tragedy’ and uses ‘Theatre, comedy’ instead.  It is.  And it works.  As both a comedy, but one undershot with tragedy.

Many of Lawrence’s cast have appeared with Globe in one form or another over several years.  For example, I found Salesi Le’ota (Nurse), who I first saw in Globe’s Hamlet  5 or 6 years back, has grown immensely, developing his strength, energy and immaculate timing considerably  He is at the heart of the comedy, ably supported by Frith Horan, whose energetic, clownish Mercutio really becomes the ‘saucy merchant’ Nurse brands him to be and almost overshadows Tybalt (Adrian Hooke) and even Friar Laurence (Kevin Keys).

That said, this production remains a tragedy at its core.  And Natasha Daniel and Alistair Sewell (Romeo) give us two very young lovers drawn together by adolescent passion but tragically fated to wind up nowhere.  They carry it well.

However, this remains essentially a theatrical entertainment.  The cast is aware of this and the audience is too.  And that leaves plenty of space for the delivery of Shakespeare’s words, time to play with the emotions he has drawn and just plain have fun. 

In summary ?  Well,  Romeo and Juliet seems almost like a theatrical production about a theatrical production.  That is just great and it’s refreshingly good to see the Pop Up Globe Company at work again. – Enjoy

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Measure for Measure: intrigue, sex and plenty of laughs

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Nick Milnes (Angelo), Stuart Tupp (Duke), Stephen Ellis (Escalus) and Āria Harrison-Sparke (Isabella)

Auckland Shakespeare in the Park 2024

Measure for Measure

By William Shakespeare

A Shoreside Theatre production

Pumphouse Amphitheatre

(if wet – Pumphouse Theatre)

Jan 23, 24, 26, 28, 30, Feb 6, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Measure for Measure is one of the comedies that’s billed as a play for today.  Peopled by a typically diverse cast, it’s hilarious and increasingly convoluted mundane day-to-day content provides context and plenty of laughs.  Some of Shakespeare’s characters simply fill space but a core soon emerges and, with them, the not uncommon Shakespearean themes of intrigue, manipulation and resolution are revealed.

For openers, the rather wearisome Duke of Vienna (Stephen Tupp) decides to take an extended timeout leaving his deputy Angelo (Nick Milnes) in charge.  And that’s where things get interesting because Angelo takes a more hardline view of both public morals and the law, before revealing a worldview that is essentially flawed.  In particular, he is concerned about sex outside of marriage.  So he sets about closing all Vienna’s brothels and heavily penalising anyone who dares fornicate privately – with the penalty being death of course.

One of the first to feel his ire is a likeable young chap called Claudio (Chis Raven) who has very few words in the playscript, but whose situation and fate quickly become something of a fulcrum for what follows.  He must have been a sweet-talker in private though because he has somehow managed to impregnate his publicly mute fiancée Juliet (Alice Dibble). 

However, when Claudio’s sister, the novice nun Isabella (Āria Harrison-Sparke), learns of this she is outraged and thereby hangs the nub of Shakespeare’s play.  Echoing social mores that are sometimes as prevalent today as they were 400 years ago, Angelo says he’ll only do it if Isabella yields her own virginity to him.  The cad!

Thus comedy becomes context, and hypocracy, truthfulness and justice are revealed as what this play is about. 

Rather than a strong Duke who eventually returns from his sojourn as a Friar and comes up with a Plan B that sees Angelo’s jilted fiancée Mariana (Terri Mellender) substitute for Isabella, the key protagonist is revealed instead to be Isabella herself. 

Āria Harrison-Sparke handles this with aplomb, assuredness and maturity.  In particular her command of Shakespearean dialogue is of a considerable order.

Nick Milnes ties himself in knots at times as Angelo and Terri Mellender makes a delightful, if giggly, wronged fiancée.  Escalus, ever the civil servant is played very straight by Stephen Ellis and the lesser character-roles provide some big laughs.  Perhaps of note was Michelle Atkinson (Provost) who introduced both subtlety and nuance to her Provost.

The set is fairly stark and simple, as are the props.  Of particularly ghoulish note was the severed head of not-Claudio and brought directly from his beheading and I could swear it as still dripping blood!

Eventually the good Duke shucks off his Friar mantle, resumes his Duke-ness, sentences Angelo to wed Mariana, then threatens to kill him as well. But Mariana and Isabella plead for Angelo’s life, reveal that Claudio is alive, the Duke pardons Angelo and proposes to Isabella, while Claudio and Juliet presumably live happily ever after – even if their newborn bites Claudio’s finger.

As I said, very convoluted, but also very Shakespearean.

Most audible, even from his proper tongue,
“An Angelo for Claudio, death for death.”
Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure;
Like doth quit like, and measure still for measure.

Unlike last year’s Shakespeare-in-the-Park season where winds blew and cheeks cracked, Shoreside Theatre is looking forward to better weather this summer.   Nonetheless, the white noise created by even the gentlest breeze in the trees surrounding this outdoor venue makes it sometimes difficult for a cast to project beyond it so seating in the forwards rows is recommended.  Rather surprisingly it got a tad chilly as the evening wore on and a good jacket, or even a blanket, is suggested.

This annual two-play season (although not reviewed here, the other is A Midsummer Night’s Dream) is now firmly established on the Auckland theatrical calendar in this, its 28th season.