The Duke of Vienna decides to leave, and chooses Angelo as his deputy to run the city in his absence. Angelo decides to clamp down on the loose morality of the city, including closing the brothels and sentencing a young man named Claudio to death, because he has got the girl who intends to marry pregnant. Claudio’s friend, Lucio, visits Claudio’s sister, Isabella, a novice nun, and she decides to try and persuade Angelo to change his mind. He tells her that he’ll let Claudio free in exchange for sex.
There are so many themes in this play which resonate with our lives today, including corrupt power, hypocrisy and the Me Too movement. It was quite shocking to hear Claudio utter ‘Who will believe thee?’ to Isabella when she says that she will tell people of his offer. It’s incredible that a line from a 400 year old play can still be so poignant today.
Although there are plenty of relatable themes, it is the ending which makes this play problematic. After the Duke’s return and his exposure of Claudio’r hypocrisy, Claudio is forgiven by his wife and the Duke announces that he will marry Isabella. She says nothing. It was interesting that during the feature shown during the interval about previous productions, it was mentioned that when Juliet Stevenson played Isabella, she tried to find moments in the play where a potential romance between Isabella and the Duke could be hinted, which would give the play a happier ending. In this production however, Isabella was simply passed from being the subject of one man’s power to another.
As always with the RSC, this was a high value production and the story was told incredibly clearly. Antony Byrne was charismatic as the Duke and Lucy Phelps was moving as Isabella. I also particularly liked Joseph Arkley as Lucio, who brought some light hearted moments to the play.
I knew nothing of this play beforehand and I’m glad that I got to see such a fantastic production through RSC Live.
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