Measure for Measure

What happens when a Duke hands over his power to his second-in-command and wanders the streets in disguise to watch as events unfold? What if that second-in-command pursues his obsession to purify society of sexual corruption, yet finds himself caught up in his own erotic dream? And what if a young man finds himself condemned to death for fornication, the price of his life is his sister’s virginity, and his sister is a nun?

Wickedly comic, unbearably raw and strangely tender, “Measure for Measure” is one of Shakespeare’s most unpredictable and least classifiable dramas.

“Never has Measure for Measure been so disturbing… Suddenly the play looks brutal, contradictory, unresolved: barbaric and Christian and modern.” (The Observer)

Complicite has performed in Berlin with “The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol” (1995), “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” (1997), and most recently with “The Noise of Time” (2001).

Cast

Directed by Simon McBurney
Design Tom Pye
Lighting Design Paul Anderson
Sound Christopher Shutt
Projections Sven Ortel for mesmer
Costumes Christina Cunningham

Simon McBurney Duke
Mike Grady Escalus
Angus Wright Angelo
Ajay Naidu Lucio
Clive Mendus First Gent
Tamzin Griffin Mistress Overdone
Richard Katz Pompey
Ben Meyjes Claudio
Craig Parkinson Provost
Steven Crossley Friar Peter
Naomi Frederick Isabella
Kostas Philippoglou Elbow
Jamie Bradley Servant to Angelo
Katie Jones Juliet
Anamaria Marinca Mariana
Johannes Flaschberger Barnadine

IAll other parts played by members of the company