Pittsburgh-based production company Viral Content Generator (VCG) joins this year’s Cincy Fringe with its own loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. VCG’s version, in brief: Claudio is set to be executed for the crime of fornication (read: impregnating Julietta outside of wedlock). Claudio’s sister Isabella pleads with the law, Angelo, who makes an indecent proposal: Angelo will spare Claudio if Isabella will go to bed with him. Virginal Isabella refuses, frets and eventually gives in. Claudio is saved, but Isabella’s shame drives her to a tragic end.
Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure is actually a comedy: No one dies at the end after Duke Vincentio intervenes on poor Isabella’s behalf. VCG has taken liberties in pursuit of a feminist exploration. In adaptor and director Shannon Knapp’s words, “This play asks ‘What happens without the Duke’s maneuvering? What does poor Isabella do if faced with corrupt and misogynistic power structures and no power of her own?’” (This comment can be found on a crowdfunding site; it might have been helpful to offer it as a program note.)
Without such framing, it’s a real task for the audience to suss this out. VCG’s production is scattered and often incomprehensible. Brutal Tragedy begins, boldly, “You know why you are here.” Unfortunately, I never found that to be true. As the audience enters they find themselves witnessing a silent protest as three women bear signs with statements such as, “No woman is safe until all women are safe.” Eventually the scene breaks along with the fourth wall as the cast offers cookies and Kool-Aid to the audience — to what purpose I am uncertain. The following 35 minutes (the play clocks in significantly under its projected 45) are comprised of a fast-paced rip through an adaptation that fails to communicate its ideas.
Isabella faces an impossible struggle as her dear brother pleads for her to trade her body for his life, even while her faith insists that to hand over her body is to hand over her soul. The double concept she faces is worth exploring today as much as in 1600, but this production obscures more of Measure for Measure than it clarifies.
