A powerful government official offers to suspend a sex offender’s death sentence in exchange for a night of love-making with the convicted man’s virginal sister.

William Shakespeare foreshadows the #MeToo movement by about four hundred years in Measure For Measure, a four-century-old play given stunning contemporary relevance by directors Armin Shimerman and Elizabeth Swain at Antaeus Theatre Company.

When writing about Measure For Measure back in 2010, I compared the aforementioned quid-pro-quo to a scene from a day-or-nighttime soap, but that was ten years ago, and in 2020 the #metoo correlation between then and now becomes startlingly clear.

The government official in question is Angelo (Ramón de Ocampo), newly appointed to rule Venice by Duke Vincentio (Paul Culos), who has grown tired of governing a city whose degeneracy is made shockingly clear from the get-go by directors Shimerman and Swain.

Angelo soon decides that the best way to rid the land of sin is to make an example of one particular sinner, in this case Claudio (also de Ocampo), an otherwise virtuous man who has unfortunately gotten his fiancée pregnant, making him guilty of “licentiousness.”

The virgin made to choose between her brother’s death and the loss of her own virtue is Isabella (Carolyn Ratteray), a young novitiate about to take her religious vows.

Unfortunately for Claudio, the moralistic Isabella refuses Angelo’s deal, and when she threatens to go public with his demand for sexual favors, her words (the same words that any of Harvey Weinstein’s victims might have uttered) are met with a blunt “Who would believe you?”

Talk about prophetic.

As befits any Shakespeare play that calls itself a comedy, a laughter-generating subplot has Claudio’s foppish friend Lucio (Bo Foxworth) attempting to curry favor with both Duke and Friar (unaware that they are one and the same) as the malaprop-prone Elbow (Paul Eiding), hip-hip-hipster Pompey (Aaron Lyons), and a frothy gent named Froth (Desirée Mee Jung) provide additional comedic relief.

Adding further chuckles amongst the dramatic proceedings are Mistress Overdone (Rhonda Aldrich as the bawdy madam) and Bernardine (Eiding) a condemned killer so cheeky that he refuses to be put to death while still hung-over.

de Ocampo’s dual turns as both a lust-possessed “enemy” of lust and (in a clever bit of casting) the man he has unjustly condemned to death are both terrifically rendered, and yes, directors Shimerman and Swain do figure up a way to have both characters on stage at once.

Though assigned only one role, Culos delivers a distinct pair of equally dynamic performances when the Duke dons glasses and a hooded robe to create a “disguise” that would do Clark Kent proud.

Ratteray’s luminous Isabella is as passionate as she is pure, and as warm as she is intransigent; Fletcher’s Escalus shines in scenes both dramatic (opposite Angelo and The Duke) and comedic (opposite Eiding’s delightfully droll Elbow and Lyons’ equally amusing Pomey); and Foxworth gives the debauched Lucio a pansexual flair before doing even more gender bending as a very pregnant Juliet.

Jung goes effortlessly from man to woman and back again in three very different parts, Aldrich makes for a deliciously blowsy Mistress Overdone (just one of four distinctly rendered female/male roles), and Lloyd Roberson II completes the all-around splendid cast as Provost.

Frederica Nascimento (set), Allison Dillard (costumes), Matt Richter (lighting), Christopher Moscatiello (sound), and Lyons (props) give Measure For Measure a stark but stunning production design that fits Shimerman and Swain’s conception to a T.

Measure For Measure features choreography by Liz LaMura. Ryan McRee is dramaturg. Kaite Brandt and Michael Hoag are assistant directors. Taylor Anne Cullen is production stage manager and Talya Camras is assistant stage manager. Adam Meyer is technical director. Ann Noble is casting associate. Nicole Erb assumes Jung’s roles beginning March 14.

Relatively uncomplicated of plot, surprisingly accessible despite its Elizabethan English, and given noteworthy contemporary significance by its directors, Measure For Measure adds up to one exciting evening of classical theater at Antaeus.

Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center, 110 East Broadway, Glendale.
www.Antaeus.org

–Steven Stanley
February 22, 2020
Photos: Jenny Graham

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, The Antaeus Company, William Shakespeare