Measure for Measure (Lika För Lika) (2013)

Measure for Measure (Lika for lika), presented by Gothenburg City Theatre, Gothenburg, Sweden, 28 November, 2012Directed by Tobias Theorell. Scenography and costume: Magdalena Aberg. Lighting: Ellen Ruge. Sound: Karin Bloch-Jorgensen. Mask: Maria Agaton. Dramaturgy: Cecilia Olveczky (text), Lucas Svensson (production). With Orjan Ramberg (The Duke [Vincentio]), Caroline Soderstrom (Isabella), Jacob Ericksson (Angelo), Gustav Ekman Mellbin (Claudio), Mats Blomgren (Lucio), Eivin Dahlgren (Escalus), Thomas Nystedt (The Provost), Victoria Olmarker (Alfonsina [Mistress Overdone], Julia, Mariana, Messenger), Gothenburg Boys' Choir. Translated by Goran O Eriksson.There were many schoolchildren in the audience on the late November evening I saw Gothenburg City Theatre's production of Measure for Measure, and it is a credit to the production's, and the play's, intensity that there was very little interference from the crowd during the three hours' performance. The stage was bare, with benches running along the sides on which actors rested when not involved in the action. On the greyish white walls and stage were written a number of words in capital letters: 'hell,' 'convent,' 'prison,' 'mortal sin,' 'mercy,' 'for sale,' 'covetousness,' and, rather inexplicably, 'Shakespeare.' A red neon sign told us we were in Vienna. Costumes were contemporary, with suits for the men of power, making Isabella's white novice's habit and veil and the monks' robes stand out. Music by Thomas Morley, Henry VIII, K. H. Cohen, Thomas Aquinas, John Dowland, William Cornish, Thomas Tallis, and John Wilson was performed by the Gothenburg Boys' Choir, in breaks between scenes or to set the mood, and the boys wore Elizabethan puffed trousers and doublets. In the programme, the director explains their period costume as a nod to Shakespeare, and the boys' singing from above the stage as a way to stress innocence as contrasting with, and impotently watching, the cynicism enacted below. Perhaps the mixture of costume could also signal the continual relevance of the story; the production's tagline, as read on the theatre's website was: 'Bribery. Prostitution. Blackmail. Everything and everybody can be bought.'The stark simplicity of the scenery focused attention on the actors and the acting, which was in some cases impressive. Jacob Ericksson was magnetic as Angelo, in complete control of body, gestures and voice. Given the power to rule over Vienna, symbolised by a black briefcase handed to him by the Duke, he at first had Escalus carry it. Soon, though, he caressed its black leather lovingly, then smelled his fingers, caressed, and smelled. The same gestures - touching and smelling - were repeated in the fifth act, when he was given what he believed to be Claudio's head in a plastic bag. Obsessed with cleanliness, Ericksson/Angelo worked his way through a number of wet wipes during the performance, at the same time as his skin got paler and his face more hollow-eyed, until finally his moral deterioration was visible in a large blister below his lip, perhaps herpes. But it was with his body that Ericksson owned the stage and established Angelo's character: its painful tension, its refusal at times to obey his will, its shrinking in the presence of the Duke, its brutal strength in the second meeting with Isabella which turned into an attempted rape.The contrast with the Duke was complete: Orjan Ramberg's ruler spoke slowly, moved with weight, as at ease with his power as with his belly, accentuated by a slightly-too-tight jacket. When in disguise, his slowness gave an impression of improvisation, of not quite knowing the ropes; when another character kissed his hand, he kissed it himself as well. His interest in Isabella was signalled through touches and caresses. He addressed her as 'my little heart,' and he wrote a poem to her (consisting of some lines from his speech at the end of Act Three, otherwise largely cut). …