Production Notes :: College Theatre Festival Papers

Production Notes Preface The slides and video that are found on this web site are recordings of a production of Measure for Measure mounted at the College of the Holy Cross in the fall of 1996. In February, 1997, the production was re-mounted at Brandeis University as part of the American College Theatre Festival. The following notes formed the conceptual basis for the production. First Response In the final months of the twentieth century, Measure provides us with a searing allegory about a society that is divided severely along economic and social lines. The ubiquitious moral rot of Shakespeare's play parallels our contemporary world. The political and social hypocricy of rulers who abuse power for personal gain while criticizing and punishing the lower classes comes right out of the evening news. Some issues of the play hit home harder today and in a radically different manner then they would have in Shakespeare's day. Ideas such as sexual harrassment and immorality connote wildly different things to a contemporary audience, particularly in light of recent current events. Talking Points I. Measure for Measure is a play about power--political, economic, and sexual power--and how these three interrelated phenomena intersect with catastrophic consequences when they are abused by an inadequate leader. But it is essential to note that the play is not against the use of power per se, because the entire crisis is instigated by the failure of a rightful ruler to exercise properly his responsibilities of office. Indeed, the entire arc of the play is about how this ruler--Duke Vincentio--learns about the nature of power and the necessity of its public demonstration. It can be argued that, in many respects, the play is a primer about effective leadership and must be viewed as a humanistic revision of Machievelli's The Prince. II. Political power must be exercised correctly and sexual desires must be pursued properly. Without sex there is no propagation of the species and without political restraint there is no maintenance of the social order. Political responsibility cannot be avoided and neither can the fundamental need of humans to fornicate. Without restraint, however, the pursuit of these intersecting fundamental drives will undermine the stability of society. Measure for Measure argues that political power must be exercised in a principled manner and sexual intercourse must occur under the sanction of marriage. III. A recurring theme in the plays of Shakespeare is the nature of effective leadership.