Measure for Measure (The Public Theater) NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (88)
See it if You are a fan of ERS. You want to see the absolute most unusual rendering of this classic Shakesperian play ever ! You are open minded.
Don't see it if You can’t leave Pre-conceived ideas out of your mind. You are uncomfortable if you can’t understand everything you hear ! Read more
See it if ERS's ability to find and/or create clever and slapstick humor is unparalleled; company shows its great versatility in multiple roles
Don't see it if Attempt to distill a moderate Shakespeare piece cannot overcome its mediocrity despite the humor and stage creativity
See it if You are a fan of the play and/or want to see a slapstick comedy style shakespeare
Don't see it if You can’t follow really quick dialogue
See it if Elevator Repair Service - they of Gatz fame - meets Shakepare tackling judgement morality and justice in a manic but uneven production
Don't see it if You need your Shakespeare pure and don’t like modern updates in style speed costume and staging even with very inventive staging
See it if you have the patience not to be thrown by a very eccentric production. There's terrific acting & some profound & funny moments buried here.
Don't see it if untraditional treatment of Shakespeare bothers you. Much of the slapstick is pointless & the production is disjointed & often irrational.
See it if you are fan of ERS and the talented troupe working at mach speed here fully committed to this interpretation of the Shakespeare text
Don't see it if you are not a fan of this "problem" play of Shakespeare's
See it if you enjoy the quirky avant-garde work from ERS and dont mind teleprompter for Shakespeare
Don't see it if you prefer a traditional Shakespearean staging
See it if ..you are curios about experiments with Shakespeare and timing in theatre. Re-read the summary prior to the show.
Don't see it if ..can't seat trough 2 h with no intermission, there is no re-entry. You expect something conventional.
Critic Reviews (30)
"A wildly inventive and often thrilling production...Truly, if the entire cast and the timing of the performances were not so carefully aligned, the entire enterprise would implode on itself and wind up as nothing more than a clever piece of gimmickry. The comedy is spun to the height of ridiculousness, and at a sacrifice to Shakespeare's language...Elevator Repair Service has pulled off a remarkable feat here by using the pacing of the play in support of delineating its serious intent."
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"ERS takes the play to a new space of feeling and being letting its tragic and comic elements intersect provocatively...The shenanigans interspersed into scenes add zest, but the helter-skelter pacing of the dialogue may have you feeling somewhat confused...It's almost impossible to absorb the text and the stage proceedings simultaneously — but it's exhilarating and fun...Although the ERS venture is off-beat, it remains faithful to Shakespeare's essential dramaturgy."
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“Leave it to the adventurous Elevator Repair Service company to take a challenging Shakespearean text like ‘Measure for Measure’...and turn it into a wacky and wonderful romp...The text is the star of the show – as spoken by the cast and as projected simultaneously on the upstage wall...There’s method in this director’s madness. Ultimately, all these clashing styles coalesce into a glorious, zany, exuberant, hodge-podge whole.”
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"Under the direction of John Collins, the cast delivers their lines with such speed that for much of the two hours (no intermission) they are unintelligible...This cast gives it everything they have. The pacing, however, does them in. We cannot follow what we do not understand...The plot is deciphered enough for us to understand the conclusion. By the time it arrives, however, we are almost mad with the desire to flee the sound of this nearly consonant free buzzing and rush out into the night."
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“A screwball, slapstick rendering of the Bard’s problem play that is in turns hilarious, bizarre, and inscrutable...For Shakespeare purists, this interpretation may strike as overly-avant, and complete novices may find themselves in the dark, but for the many of us somewhere in the middle, it’s a one-of-a-kind tribute. It demonstrates the endless ways Shakespeare can be reinvented and reasserted as a salient voice for our time and for centuries to come.”
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"Their tactics fail to engage, and causes the brain, well, at least my brain, to tune out...It is a unique and cerebral approach, filled with wit and cleverness, and I applaud ERS for their bravery, their theoretical ideas, and their willingness to experiment. Unfortunately, the poetry and the musicality is erased, and we are left with a confusing chaotic mess that at moments feel too speedy for its own good, and deadly slow and dull at the same time."
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"What they have done is stretch the text in some parts and, more often, compress it in others...The pacing can feel more capricious than meaningful, and sometimes flippant...The company’s signature, experimental approach to text here yields a deliberately radical result that sometimes is right for the text, and sometimes seems more in the service of the company’s concerns but it does deliver a 'Measure for Measure' for our satisfaction-driven, impatient, 21st century brains."
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"Medium is the message here and that message is pure Shakespeare and pure and unrefined 'Measure for Measure.' Under Collins’s inventive and meticulous direction, the play 'gathers to a greatness like the ooze of oil crushed' to a grandeur that defines itself for a new era...ERS’s 'Measure' is itself an exercise in rhythm...Shakespeare’s words scroll across the set in ERS’s 'Measure for Measure' and demand to be reckoned with in new and sometimes uncomfortable ways."
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