Measure For Measure by William Shakespeare modern translation by Aditi Brennan Kapil - lots of cast
An accessible new translation of one of Shakespeare’s most interesting and challenging plays.
One of Shakespeare’s most difficult plays, Measure for Measure has long challenged performers and audiences alike. In reworking the play in her translation, Aditi Brennan Kapil honors the structure, rhythms, and themes of Shakespeare’s original. Kapil’s updated language makes this cautionary fable about frailty, power, and the perils of legislating morality accessible for today’s audiences.
Labels: adaptation, classic
posted by Jim Vogel at 10:55 AM
5 Comments:
I was pleasantly surprised by "Measure for Measure". Kapil worked with numerous theater people including the Guthrie to "translate" the script. They removed and replaced much of the obsolete language and the in-jokes for the Shakespearean audience. It reads like Shakespeare, but I didn't have to look for footnotes, or check the dictionary. I am interested to see what others think.
I liked this version of it - and I think we are in a perfect time where having a leader who preaches moral absolutism while personally doing the opposite of what he preaches is ... timely. (Side note: this is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays - all except for the resolution at the end which is just annoying all around. Also, that Shakespeare skips over the scenes where Isabelle and Mariana talk to each other, and yet we listen endlessly to other more pointless things is a fault for which I will never forgive him. But I digress). This version of it should be in the mix for our classical slot.
I am not a Shakespearean expert, but I liked this script. It was funny and easy to understand.
I played Isabella in a production at Park Square years ago. We used an adaptation done by Bill Parker, a Shakespeare scholar who was working at Minnesota Public Radio at the time. Interestingly, this adaptation feels very much like Bill's.
In my mind it well deserves its classification as one of Shakespeare's "problem plays," and I don't believe it ever works as a tragicomedy. And although I have seen numerous productions over the years, I didn't feel that any of them solved the problems inherent in the play, including the production I was in.
While I appreciate that there are elements in the narrative that could be likened to present day scenarios, I'm not convinced that this play is the best candidate to shed light on them. For me, the basic premise is awkward, the comedy within the context of what's at the heart of the story never quite feels at home, and the ending is not at all satisfying for any of the characters.
Perhaps it is a consequence of my having lived a long life and becoming cynical about so many things in life, including many plays that I have become overly familiar with, that my level of sensitivity has become heightened with time. It's the same with the way I now respond to the Tempest. So, it's a no for me.
Of the many adaptions I've read, this one just took my top spot. Even so, I think there are other shows up for consideration that might round out season 75 more effectively.
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