Measure for Measure 2004

by William Shakespeare

A collaboration between the National Theatre and Complicite

Part of The Travelex £10 Season

Pompey: Yonder man is carried to prison.
Mistress Overdone: Well! What has he done?
Pompey: A woman.
Mistress Overdone: But what's his offence?
Pompey: Groping for trouts, in a peculiar river.

What happens when a Duke hands over his power to his second-in-command and wanders the streets in disguise to watch as events unfold? What if that second-in-command pursues his
obsession to purify society of sexual corruption, yet finds himself caught up in his own erotic dream? And what if a young man finds himself condemned to death for fornication, the price of his life is his sister's virginity, and his sister is a nun?

Wickedly comic, unbearably raw and strangely tender, Measure for Measure is one of Shakespeare's most unpredictable and least classifiable dramas.

Previous work by Complicite seen at the NT includes Mnemonic, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Out of a house walked a man…, The Street of Crocodiles and The Visit. Recent work includes Strange Poetry – Berlioz and The Chemistry of Dreams with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and The Elephant Vanishes.

'Simon McBurney and Complicite never fail to plunge deeply into an ocean of invention to draw out new work of dazzling creativity' Peter Brook

PLEASE NOTE Contains scenes which may not be suitable for young children

Measure for Measure 2004 finished on: 31 July 2004