FFYAA

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1170959...

The Duke of Vienna takes some time off, leaving the government in the hands of his deputies, Escalus and Angelo. They enforce the sexual purity laws which had fallen into disuse; the brothels all close (leading to much grumbling from former staff and clients) and one Claudio is condemned to death for impregnating his girlfriend. Claudio's sister Isabella pleads for his life: Angelo promises to spare him in return for sexual favours from her. The Duke, who actually hasn't gone away at all but is hanging around disguised as a monk, persuades Isabella to go along with the plan but finds Angelo's brutally dumped ex-fiancee to take her place in his bed. There is a grand final scene in which All Is Revealed, Angelo is forced to marry his ex, Claudio is released and the Duke gets to marry Isabella.

I imagine that in its original environment, this worked rather well: the Duke is an enlightened ruler who exposes his deputy's flaws, rights an old wrong, and ameliorates the effects of bad laws. To today's audience, it's a much more difficult sell: the Duke is a manipulative bastard who could actually have resolved it all by Act 2, but instead humiliates pretty much everyone else in sight in order to assert his authority. The enforced marriage of Angelo to his old flame also works less well today. It would be interesting to see this done with the Duke deliberately portrayed as the villain. The Cambridge student production I saw didn't do that but did end with Isabella bluntly though silently rejecting him.

Arkangel take a difficult script and do it well, with Roger Allam, one of their star performers, as the Duke, Simon Russell Beale as Angelo, and Claudia Gonet, a new name to me, as Isabella; the veteran Christopher Benjamin (Inferno / Talons of Weng Chiang / The Unicorn and the Wasp) is Escalus. ( )

This was listed as a comedy in a collection I have of Shakespeare's plays...it didn't seem quite one to me given the basic plot element of "sleep with me or I'll kill your brother." Still, I enjoyed it more than average. ( )

Quotation 03.01.18 - 03.01.32

'Claudio:
Ay but to die and go we know not where,
To lie in cold obstruction and to rot,
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod, and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods or to reside
In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice,
To be imprisoned in the viewless winds
And blown with restless violence round about
The pendent world, or to be worse than worst
Of those that lawless and incertain thought
Imagine howling, 'tis too horrible.
The weariest and most loathed worldly life
that age, ache, penury, and imprisonment
Can lay on nature, is a paradise
To what we fear of death.' ( )

It's definitely a fun play, but I can see how it is not a favorite. It's raunchy enough that teachers wouldn't want to use it for high school students, and preachy enough that many may not enjoy it. It is a dark comedy, with the Duke playing both sides for seeming for little reason other than his amusement, and the shadow of death hanging over several characters throughout the play.

I would like to see a performance of it. I hope that I'll eventually get a chance! ( )