Review: A skilled cast delivers emotional darkness in Tavern’s ‘Measure for Measure’

Though technically classified as one of the Bard’s comedies, Measure for Measure, onstage at Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse until September 27, is a dark, morally complex work. This production leans into the unease and the ickiness of its sexual politics, and the strong performers bring out the richness and emotion in the story.

It’s a weird, timeless work about well-meaning leaders demanding that the people adhere to standards of purity and good behavior, while few hands actually remain clean from vice and sin. The so-called good guys are never as good or comfortable as they’d like to be. The supposed bad guys are comparatively relaxed and seem to enjoy life more. 

As with real life, most everyone in Measure for Measure is corrupt or corruptible. It’s a shame we don’t always give each other grace. In this play, though, lust is a matter of life and death.

Vincentio (Daniel Hilton), the duke of Vienna, proclaims he’s leaving the city and placing his deputy Angelo (Tyren Duncan) in charge of enforcing laws against immorality. But the duke actually goes undercover as a monk in the city to see how everyone behaves while he’s away.

Angelo’s first act is to imprison an engaged man named Claudio (O’Neil Delapenha), who has gotten his girlfriend pregnant before they were lawfully wed. Making an example of Claudio, Angelo sentences him to death.

When Claudio’s sister, Isabella (Jasmine Renee Ellis), a novice nun not yet fully vowed to God, finds out the sentence, she rushes to Angelo to beg for mercy. Angelo, unexpectedly aroused at the sight of her, says he will free her brother if Isabella surrenders her virginity to him. This horrifies Isabella, but Angelo says no one will believe her. 

Isabella wants only to escape the situation with her virtue intact so that she can give herself to God, something the makers of this production inherently understand. A moment of lightness for the other characters surrounds her with darkness during the very effective ending.

There’s not much levity in this play; most of the laughs come from a very funny gossip named Lucio (Russell Alexander II), a madam aptly named Mistress Overdone (Kati Grace Kirby) and the brazen Pompey (Adam King), whose familiarity with the brothel lands him in trouble with the law.

But the depth of the moral debate at the center of this is very interesting, and the actors are uniformly strong.

Returning to Atlanta stages after a two-year sabbatical, Ellis grants Isabella a ferocious strength as she seeks justice everywhere, only to be met with frustration. It’s a difficult role, for Isabella rarely gets to govern her own body’s future. The character essentially ends up under threat from both allies and villains, though the author of the text may not have recognized the depth of that misogyny himself. Ellis meets the challenge. Her scenes with Duncan, in particular, blaze with fury as the two battle for the upper hand.

Duncan, nominated for four Suzi Bass Awards this year alone for his performances, once again delivers a powerhouse turn as Angelo, who is perplexed that he cannot live by the very laws he seeks to enforce.

Hilton has fun as the duke, rapidly delivering lines about the complex plot with an exasperated fervor. The character’s single-minded certainty in his own decency is a bit ironic, considering he spends the entire play lying, and Hilton emphasizes that misplaced arrogance to good effect.

Delapenha is, once again, a warm, emotional presence onstage. He gets few scenes as the condemned Claudio, but he plays up the character’s grief and desperation. It is always good to see him.

Jaclyn Hoffman-Faircloth directs this material with a clear grasp of its nuances, and she guides the audience frequently to be mindful of Isabella, even in moments where she is silently reacting. The lighting design from Mary Parker deserves specific praise.

Measure for Measure exposes the flaws in the harsh leadership of a moral majority. This message should be a thing of the past. Unfortunately, some religious and political leaders still advise us to do as they say, not as they do.

Where and When

Measure for Measure is at the Shakespeare Tavern through September 27. Tickets start at $20.
499 Peachtree St. NE.

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Benjamin Carr is an ArtsATL editor-at-large who has contributed to the publication since 2019 and is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, the Dramatists Guild, the Atlanta Press Club and the Horror Writers Association. His writing has been featured in podcasts for iHeartMedia, onstage as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival and online in The Guardian. His debut novel, Impacted, was published by The Story Plant.