Theatre Verity presents a new, modern take on 'Measure for Measure'

Theater Review |

When ethics and compromise collide, there's no turning back. Daniel Tarker's "Mr. Angelo" offers a stark assessment of the costs of that collision. His intriguing play is well worth seeing despite a few rough edges.

Isabelle, a principled yet naïve Methodist minister, is distraught when her younger brother is charged as a sex offender for impregnating his 16-year-old girlfriend. Imprisoned and awaiting trial, he implores Isabelle to intervene with the D.A., Mr. Angelo.

Of course she longs to help him, but wouldn't her intercession compromise her pastoral role? After wrestling with this moral dilemma, she agrees. Her visit with Mr. Angelo begins her fall from grace.

The play's weakness is inconsistency in character portrayal. Isabelle is too easily manipulated. Julie, the pregnant girl, is too stupidly immature initially to turn into the wise woman she is at the end.

Unfortunately, M.E. Graham's direction emphasizes rather than minimizes these flaws. Emmatrice Devan's Isabelle has an idealism and earnestness that's right on. What the director hasn't called forth are nuances that would suggest why she's so easily led astray.

Similarly, Alysha Curry's Julie lacks subtlety. Her Julie, at the outset, is almost a caricature of the vacuous teenager who lacks common sense.

But these are not serious flaws. There's much to like about this play, and those of you who know Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure" will enjoy comparing the two works. Hypocrisy, political ambition, morality and mercy are central themes in both. They each have a nefarious Angelo to ensnare the heroine. And there's even a Duke with dual personas in both.

Tarker's re-imagining of the Shakespeare plot creates a thoroughly modern play that brings to mind scandals that are all too familiar today. And Isabelle's problems can't help but remind us of potential difficulties faced by contemporary women working in traditionally male roles.

Nancy Worssam: nworssam@mindspring.com