Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Simon Godwin, Associate Director, London’s National Theatre, stages Measure for Measure, William Shakespeare’s dark comedy about justice, faith, power, sex, and family. Jonathan Cake (Benedick in TFANA’s Much Ado About Nothing), Cara Ricketts (Imogen in Cymbeline at Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Ontario), and Thomas Jay Ryan (Thomas Putnam in The Crucible on Broadway) lead a company of 12 actors in a high-stakes conflict of clashing ideologies–a diverse world in which incompatible values collide.
Sarah Hemming of The Financial Times recently described Godwin as “one of [Great Britain’s] foremost directors.” The Guardian‘s Michael Billington called Godwin’s gender-fluid Twelfth Night, starring Tamsin Grieg as Malvolia at the National earlier this year, “bright, inventive and boundlessly funny.” In 2016 he directed a landmark production of Hamlet for the RSC–set in West Africa and the first in the Company’s 55-year history to feature a black actor in the title role–and in 2015 won wide acclaim for his production of George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman at the National, starring Ralph Fiennes as John Tanner.
The Bard’s dark comedy will begin performances June 17 ahead of a June 25 opening at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Brooklyn. The Off-Broadway engagement is scheduled to play through July 16.
Measure for Measure has been staged at TFANA in 1996 with Bill Camp, in 2006 with Mark Rylance, and in 2010 with Jefferson Mays.
“As different as each of those productions were from each other, Simon’s production will be from them,” commented founding artistic director Jeffrey Horowitz in a press statement. “It is one of Shakespeare’s most contemporary works. There is no definitive way to do this comedy. It must be re-imagined every time.”
“It’s a high-stakes conflict with urgency, clarity and narrative momentum—a diverse world in which incompatible values collide. It’s perfectly suited for the Samuel H. Scripps main stage at Polonsky Shakespeare Center. The simplicity of the space brings out language and relationships on a human scale,” added Godwin.
Completing the cast will be Oberon K.A. Adjepong (Pericles and Tamburlaine the Great) as Provost; Kenneth De Abrew (Guards at the Taj) as Froth, Messenger, Abhorson, Friar Peter, and the 2nd Gentleman; Zachary Fine (The Two Gentlemen of Verona) as Friar Thomas, Elbow, Barnardine, and the 1st Gentleman; Leland Fowler (Seven Guitars) as Claudio; Merritt Janson (Tamburlaine the Great) as Mariana; January LaVoy (Funnyhouse of a Negro) as Mistress Overdone, Escala, and Francisca; Christopher Michael McFarland (As You Like It) as Pompey; Sam Morales (Pericles) as Juliet; and Haynes Thigpen (An Octoroon) as Lucio.
Measure for Measure will feature scenic and costume design by Paul Wills, lighting by Matthew Richards, composition and sound design by Jane Shaw, choreography by Brian Brooks, and dramaturgy by Jonathan Kalb, TFANA’s Resident Dramaturg. Megan Schwarz Dickert is production stage manager.
Tickets are on sale at TFANA.org, by calling (866) 811-4111, and at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center box office (262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn).
From Olivia Clement for www.playbill.com.
Photo: Cara Ricketts.
2017-05-17
Brooklyn, NY: Stratford's Cara Ricketts plays Isabella in "Measure for Measure" for Theatre for a New Audience