Word: bsc
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...BSC has taken this troublesome text and given it a high-spirited once-over. Director Bill Cain, like the Duke in the play, sets up his machinery and watches it work--and he's more successful than the Duke ever can be. But he lets the audience fend for itself in the play's moral wilderness, relying on energy and competence rather than a consistent interpretation to pull them through. To be fair, any attempt at consistency in Measure for Measure would end up forcing parts of the play out of shape; but if directors never even tried, the play...
SHAKESPEARE'S comedies are never complete without their clowns, and Measure for Measure has its share, but like all the other comic conventions here they're twisted, decadent. No "mechanicals" or "rustics" here--whores, bawds and drunkards fill the streets and prisons. The BSC actors keep these scenes entertaining and colorful, but they never get their fingernails dirty. They're all having too much fun with the lines to look at them carefully and see their pessimism. Will Lebow as Elbow, the Malaprop-like constable--a perfect pantaloon--steals his few scenes...
Only once does the BSC seize the play's dark side and expose it to the audience. As Pompey the whoremaster (Mark Cartier) gives the audience a tour of the riff-raff in the prison, he opens trapdoors in the stage floor which serve as cell doors--and long arms reach out, grabbing for him, trying to drag him down. It's a good bit of stage business, and it's also an eerie picture of the starved world of Measure for Measure, sucking its inhabitants into the abyss...
...BSC's Measure for Measure is technically smooth and well-directed--see it for its good spirits and evenness. But it lacks that overall sense of control which can guide an audience to new thoughts about old questions. The scenes between Angelo and Isabella hint that the company could pull this off and Measure for Measure will still be waiting when they're ready...
According to BSC student James P. Moore, the speakers did not satisfy the curiosity of the students. "Breslin tried to make us feel guilty and Buckley tried to make us feel stupid," he said yesterday...