Measure for Measure (The Acting Company) NYC Reviews and Tickets
About the Show
The Acting Company presents Shakespeare's dark work about a devout novice who faces impossible moral choices. Performed in rotating repertory with "Native Son."
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See it if You get a kick from Shakespeares beautiful words and tricky situations. We had a lovely time following plot twists + turns . Good acting
Don't see it if You’re close minded to the text- it’s easy after you settle in and go with the flow. You want a full period costume play- this is sparse Read more
See it if you want to see a clever and effective condensing of this Shakespeare play. Well acted and staged.
Don't see it if you prefer Shakespeare play to be uncut and set in traditional time and dress. Read more
See it if Intelligent, if a bit over edited for length. The women win in this version, both the actors and the characters.
Don't see it if Not quite Reduced Shakespeare, but trimmed way down. And then there's that Bartlett-Sher-My-Fair-Lady ending.
See it if you've quietly harbored the belief that Duke Vincentio is a royal a-hole and wouldn't mind it so much if Lucio were one of the leads.
Don't see it if you prefer a more muscular version of Shakespeare's text. This rendering is trimmed down to the almost-skeletal. Read more
See it if Bill's morality play: A nun decides if she must trade her chastity to pardon her brother. "Alright, girl, more of that."
Don't see it if Between the gold chains and the vape pipe; the disco beats and the coke hits, iambic pentameter is retained. Oh, the calumny! Read more
See it if you love that it’s a short 90-min Shakespeare!
Don't see it if you don’t like that it’s still in iambic pentameter even though the show was cut to 90-mins and everything else is modern.
See it if Only 90 minutes. One or two laughs. Integrity saves lives and honor. Shades of Harvey Weinstein. Change is slow.
Don't see it if Not Shakespeare’s best work, I last saw this at the Delacorte Theatre with Liev Schreiber. His dour, low-energy performance sent me packing Read more
See it if you must see every NYC Shakes prodn. But MFM is not up to the Acting Co's high standards. Many of the actors fail, wh is director's fault.
Don't see it if you have other options. Script is efficiently trimmed, but 90 feels long. Male-dominated. Amateurish. Lacks emotion or humor. Flat. Read more
Critic Reviews (6)
"Fighting the Power in 'Native Son' and 'Measure for Measure.' The Acting Company pairs Richard Wright and William Shakespeare to wake us up to injustice."
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"This is the Reader's Digest version, a ninety-minute summary that focuses on the main narrative line while severely reducing or eliminating the bawds, pimps, whores, and unrepentant criminals who form the play's substructure, becoming solely the story of a lady in distress, surrounded by manipulative men."
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"To some extent, The Acting Company's streamlined 95-minute modern-dress version proves itself a good fit for such an approach, although there are elements of Shakespeare's play that don't quite conform seamlessly with what director Janet Zarish seems to be going for."
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"Richard Wright and William Shakespeare are justly praised for their depth and breadth of thought; I wish that in the zeal to focus them on single concepts, these productions didn't reduce their works as much as they do."
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"'Measure' doesn't need the glaring visual cues that Janet Zarish delivers in a cut that leaves little but Isabella's quest to save her brother…with little emotional variation, even this slimmed-down version becomes tedious, with few performances popping out."
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"The Acting Company's new production of 'Measure for Measure'...a play about the absurdism of intolerance...is crisp, precise and thoroughly entertaining. It certainly helps that a sizable chunk of the original [is] excised from this version."
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