You can see when reading this play why there is a school of thought which subdivides Shakespeare’s Comedies into either full on comedy (Twelfth Night, Comedy of Errors, etc.) and those which are sometimes named the 'Problem Plays'. There are elements of comedy; Elbow’s malapropisms, Pompey’s change in career and Lucio slowly digging his own grave as he slanders first the Duke and then the Friar the one to other not knowing them to be the same person (Lois Lane often had the same trouble)!
The ‘Problem’ within this play is that the taking of ‘virtue’ is seen as a great sin, practically when that virtue belongs to a Nun-to-be! And how do you expose Angelo as a someone condemning a man to death for a crime he’s willing to commit himself on the sly.
But is this a problem or is that us seeing modern values in a period piece. Yes the city seems to take a dim view of ‘tumbling’ out of wedlock and Angelo does give Isabella a dammed if you do / don’t conundrum. But wouldn’t the people watching in Shakespeare’s day have been more of the mind of Pompey and Lucio than the Duke? So couldn’t you just as well play it with Angelo as a lecherous old so and so, Isabella less of a naive Nun, the Duke just trying to catch everyone out and the whole production with more of an air of farce about it?
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| Carry on Duke? |
Put it this way – what if the Carry On team had performed it with the following cast?
Angelo – Sid James
Isabella – Barbara Windsor
The Duke – Jim Dale
Mariana – Joan Sims
Lucio – Kenneth Williams
Read the play with them in mind and see what a difference it makes!
So, measure for measure, maybe we’re the problem…
And Finally – The Bard inadvertently stumbled on the format for a dating game-show. The new twist is that any male participants exposed as having “Done-the-dirty” with their date are forced to marry the bachelorette in question!
