Measure for Measure Review
Suzanne Pinkerton. A Gentlewoman
This is the second outing for this play with the Players. David Gardner was the Duke and Gaynor Bassey-Fish was Isabella and that shows how long I’ve been at the church, as it was a good few years ago.
This production was very much updated, and you had to keep an eye on your programme unless you had inside knowledge from a friend in it, or you knew the play very well. It raised some questions as to whether this particular situation, specially Isabella becoming a nun, would have been at all likely to happen now, whatever still goes on.
There were strong performances by Nabhan Uddin as Angelo, a lead role, and Steve Hanzheng Wu as Friar Peter and somebody called Edgar, a Gentleman – and I have no reason to believe he isn’t!
Katy Owens, with her lovely long flowing hair (I wish mine would grow as long!) was an appealing Isabella, and Tom Benn made a very good impression as Lucio. Let’s hope he’ll want to act with the Players again. And of course Matthew Williams was in full flow – it would seem odd without him!
There was a lot of bounding up and down the church and shouting, the only trouble being that the church architecture rather absorbs sound, and it was hard to hear the words. I was impressed at the time Director Caroline Lezny must have taken to work all this out, and of course she’s right in her note to draw comparisons with now.
Matthew Sargeant as Claudio (causing the famous line “Kill Claudio”) was so nice and cuddly you couldn’t be cross with him and I couldn’t help smiling at the horror that his fiancée was pregnant, as a singer I used to know, now working in Vienna, has just married “because of the baby” – and nobody at the Staatsoper has raised an eyebrow as far as I know!
There really wasn’t a weak link in the cast, even if I did get a bit dithered with the cross-dressing of Simon Young (husband of our former curate, the Revd Diana), but that was up to the director. It’s everywhere – all 6ft 2 of my contact in Hamburg has just appeared in a new opera as Fama (Fame) in a wedding dress and heels. It’s true – I’ve seen the photo! Nice frocks! Fortunately no veil!
It might have been better if the interval had been a bit sooner, as innocent souls like me honestly thought it was the end.
And the church roof is still on after the very loud music.
And for those who don’t know what’s coming next, wouldn’t it be loverly if lots of people came to see “My Fair Lady” in November.