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Measure For Measure, Young Vic, Introduction
Welcome to this introduction to Measure For Measure by William Shakespeare,
directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins.
The audio described performance at the Young Vic will take place on Saturday
31 October at 2.30pm. At the time of recording, the touch tour time was not
confirmed, so please call the Young Vic box office on 0207 922 2922 for more
information. This introduction will be repeated in the auditorium 15 minutes
before the play starts. The show lasts for 1 hour and 50 minutes, with no interval.
The audio description is by Miranda Yates and Kirstin Smith. This introduction will
take about 10 minutes to listen to.
The publicity material reads: “Joe Hill-Gibbins tackles Shakespeare’s dark
comedy in his peerless audacious style. Whorehouses and nunneries, betrothals
and beheadings – welcome to Vienna! When the puritanical Angelo condemns
Claudio to death, the undercover Duke of Vienna turns to bed tricks and head
tricks to see justice done. With this wickedly dark exploration of gender and
justice, Joe Hill-Gibbins follows his hit Young Vic production of The Changeling.”
Measure For Measure takes place in a playful, abstract Vienna, and draws on a
variety of aesthetics to bring the story to life. Raked bench seating faces the
broad stage, with further seating in the galleries above. A huge white cuboid
frame fills the stage, about 9 metres across, and 4 metres high and deep. A
curtain made of thin, translucent white fabric is attached to the frame on the
inside and is initially pulled right across, its vertical folds preventing a clear view
of what lies beyond. A silhouette on the fabric suggests tubular objects, piled up
on the inside. Around the white frame, the remaining black stage melts into the
darkness. There are large black speakers above the frame, smaller black
speakers below, and a subsonic soundtrack plays as we take our seats.
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As the action begins, the white fabric curtains are swept back to the sides. Inside
the cuboid, the space has the look and feel of a basketball court. The floor is
painted in a terracotta brown, and marked by white lines.
The large cuboid space is split into three sections by the addition of 2 vertical
supports like those at the ends of the cuboid shape. These are placed a couple of
metres in from each end, making the side sections about 2 metres wide and the
central section about 5 metres wide.
Often, as the main action unfolds in the central section, another character is
present, to right or left, occupied in a separate activity and location
simultaneously - sometimes unaware of anything outside their own world, or at
other times connected to the action as one hovering outside a room
eavesdropping.
Initially, however, most of the floor is completely covered by a mound of inflatable
sex dolls, male and female, all in a plastic peachy-fleshy colour. There are thirty
or forty, slightly smaller than life-sized dolls, their limbs entangled in a messy
heap. The men have painted-on black hair like a Lego man, and out of proportion
erections; the women have blonde hair and large, round breasts; all of them have
O-shaped mouth holes.
There are banks of lights in the ceiling, round lamps interspersed with fluorescent
strip lighting. The backs walls of the frame are filled by huge panels of unfinished
MDF, with a single, unmarked door just left of centre. Two projectors attached to
the front of the frame cast images onto the MDF back wall. Sometimes the
projections completely fill the wall, sometimes they appear in the narrower side
sections. The images vary from Renaissance religious iconography to images of
sex dolls like those on the stage, sometimes repeated and mirrored, becoming
abstract patterns in motion.
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The production also uses a video camera on stage. Characters speak straight to
camera, or film one another, hinting at a sinister and watchful authoritarian state.
At these times, this live footage is projected larger than life onto the cuboid’s
back wall.
Occasionally the central section of the back wall glides to the sides extending the
space to reveal a bare, institutional room beyond that’s roughly the same size as
the central space in front. A wall of bare breeze block lines the back, with a clock
in the centre, some utility units and a fire hose attached to the wall. The floor is
covered by a dull, thin carpet, and the room contains a single desk and plastic
chair and several narrow benches.
There are 12 characters played by a multiracial cast who wear clothing from the
present day.
As the play opens, Duke Vincentio is about to take his leave. He’s a grave,
upright man in his 40s, with short dark hair, olive skin, penetrating brown eyes
and a short beard. He’s dressed smartly, in a grey 3 piece suit. The material has
a slight sheen to it and with it he wears a pristine white shirt and dark tie. The
Duke wears a gold watch and his official seal on a gold ring on his wedding ring
finger.
His high-powered assistant, Escalus, is a woman in her early 30s, with a short,
wavy, brown bob and blunt fringe. She has brown eyes, light skin and prominent,
rouged cheekbones. Escalus is like a contemporary, senior civil servant and has
a precise, no nonsense manner and is often busy on her Blackberry. She wears
a deep-blue suit - a pencil skirt with a neat fitted jacket, white blouse, and moves
efficiently in stylish patent wedge-heels in tan, beige and black.
Angelo is a priggish young man in government: about 30, he’s slender, pale
verging on peaky, and walks with measured steps, gripping tightly onto a bible
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held under one arm. Angelo has thick wavy black hair, side parted and swept
across, and is clean shaven. He wears a dark steel-blue shirt, buttoned to the
top, with a navy waistcoat on top and navy trousers.
The legal advisor Provost is a tall, heavy set man in his late twenties with the
overall appearance of a prison guard. He has a stern face and watchful eyes with
a neat moustache above his downturned mouth. Provost wears black combat
trousers with a regulation dark-green short sleeved shirt that leaves us in no
doubt as to who he is with the name PROVOST in large yellow letters across the
back. With this he wears a dark green wool hat and black leather gloves, and
when not in the action is often found standing silently at the sides with hands
clasped firmly in front or behind him.
Falling foul of the rigid laws is Claudio, a tall, slim young man in his late twenties,
with large dark soulful eyes and dark brown skin. He wears a pale blue shirt open
at the collar and cream chinos with dark red leather shoes. Later he removes his
shirt revealing a plain cotton vest underneath.
Claudio’s sister Isabella is a novice, yet to take her vows to become a nun. Her
pale complexion is without makeup, and her blonde shoulder length hair is
initially hidden under a plain cotton headscarf. Isabella wears a plain and slightly
shapeless dress in a pale blue linen that buttons down the front on the left and
falls to just below the knee. The sleeves finish at the elbow and a plain cream
long sleeved top covers the rest of her arms. Isabella often prays, sitting on her
heels, her hands resting on her thighs with palms upturned, or at other times
stands with arms raised high as though summoning the heavens to come to her
aid.
We also meet Claudio’s fiancée is Juliet, a demure, and petit young woman, with
large dark eyes. Her thick short dark hair is pulled back into a small ponytail. She
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wears skinny jeans and a pretty floral print cotton blouse which clings to her
gently-rounded pregnant belly.
Amongst the low-life is Pompey - in his late forties. Shifty and weasel like, with a
trim beard and moustache, his balding head concealed under a baseball cap and
his eyes magnified by large thick framed glasses. Pompey looks like a throwback
from the 80’s in a cheap pale brown suit with a mismatching plaid shirt and brown
striped tie, and a pair of cheap white trainers.
An associate of Pompey’s is Lucio: a rakish man in his late 50s, with short, spiky
silver hair, a tall, slender frame and pinched features. He wears a maroon and
pink patterned shirt, with a clashing brown velvet shirt on top, along with black
trousers and bare feet. Lucio has a louche manner, wafting about the space with
a twinkle in his eye.
We briefly meet Master Froth who’s also in danger of falling foul of the law. He
dresses casually in shorts and a Lakers t-shirt with a gaudy patterned short
sleeved shirt over the top. He smiles nervously, his eyes darting and anxious
from behind his thick framed glasses.
Barnadine, a prisoner, is a big slab of a man towering over the others, with a
shaved head and pale ginger beard. He has several piercings around his mouth
and tattoos over his head, neck and arms. Barnadine wears grungy black
cropped trousers with a black patterned t-shirt and long black lace up boots.
Mariana is a young woman in her late twenties of similar build and height to
Isabella. She has a slightly grungy look with short dark-reddish hair, her eyes are
smudged by mascara and her cheeks tearstained. She wears a long white dress,
with a large green army jacket over the top and is barefoot. Mariana has a feisty
energy and moves with purpose, for much of the play she is in her own world on
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the far right of the stage, a huge photograph of Angelo filling the section of wall
behind her.
Cast and Production Credits
Duke Vincentio is played by Zubin Varla
Escalus by Sarah Milan
Angelo by Paul Ready
The Provost by Hammed Animashaun
Claudio by Ivanoo Jeremiah
Isabella by Romola Garai
Julietta by Natalie Simpson
Pompey by Tom Edden
Lucio by John Mackay
Master Froth by Raphael Sowole
Barnadine by Matthew Wynn
Mariana by Cath Whitefield
Upcoming Audio Described Performances at the Young Vic
The Belarus Free Theatre are coming to the Young Vic to perform a trilogy of
plays as part of the Staging A Revolution Festival. Two of these plays will be
audio described:
Time of Women at 7pm on 10 November
King Lear at 7pm on 12 November
The publicity text for the festival reads:
“The astounding Belarus Free Theatre celebrate their 10th anniversary with an
epic festival featuring 10 landmark productions.
BFT are banned in their own country. Their audiences in Minsk receive a text just
hours before the show telling them to meet at a secret location. They bring their
passports in case of KGB raids and arrest.
Now you can experience what it’s like to be a part of the bravest audience in the
world. Join us at a different secret venue each night for an award-winning show.
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After each performance there will be a discussion with leading political thinkers
and activists over Belarusian food & drinks.
One week later, BFT return to their London home the Young Vic with their
acclaimed productions of King Lear, Being Harold Pinter and the UK premiere of
Time of Women.
Following that, in December the Shakespeare continues…
Macbeth is audio described on 19 December at 2.30pm.
“Following their acclaimed collaboration on Medea at the National Theatre, Carrie
Cracknell and Lucy Guerin create a new version of Shakespeare’s supernatural
tragedy.”
And the first production of 2017 is Bull, audio described on 9 January at 3pm.
“A razor-sharp play that walks the fine line between office politics and playground
bullying. Bull offers ringside seats as three employees fight to keep their jobs.
Following a sold-out run and an Olivier Award, Clare Lizzimore’s riveting
production of Mike Bartlett’s exhilarating play returns for a limited run.”
We look forward to meeting you at the Young Vic.