The Provincial, Cardiff Bay

Wed 24 Nov 

★★★★☆

I guess there comes a point in every decadent lifestyle where one has to wonder what is the point of drinking Martini while standing up. After all, so much can be said for a delicious vermouth consumed as you sensuously wreathe around the floor in red robes, your neckline adorned by numerous corsages which emphasise a gloriously low-cut gown.

With such detailed choreography before the lights have even come down, Sherman Cymru have already forced a captivating courtly brilliance onto one of Shakespeare’s most thematically rich but narratively bland tales.

In a play which hinges so delicately on themes of balance, the grey cloud of the Sherman’s temporary closure has found its silver lining in the fantastically appropriate mock-Grecian construct that is the Provincial, a former bank in Cardiff Bay. And here, in this house of fallen money, watched over by a wall carving of The Caduceus, serpentine emblem of commerce with its similarities to the medically symbolic rod of Asclepius, a tale of greed and getting one’s own medicine is played out on multiple layers of locational significance.

This is a sparkling and lavish world of chandeliers and banners, of red silk, lusty vocals and sensual saxophone solos. Every visible nail is varnished and opportunities to add make-up don’t stop backstage, as the characters linger around magnified mirrors positioned at various points within the audience’s view.

Indeed, image is paramount to this production thanks to an absolutely spectacular costuming department. Subtleties in apparel not only allow actors to alternate between characters in a symbolically charged manner, they also expose intricacies to the work that would otherwise remain hidden. The naked back of Angelo, for example, sets up a clear visual contrast to his smart front exposing his moral duplicity and adding a humorous note to discussions of his, ‘little brief authority’.

Measure for Measure is certainly not Shakespeare’s strongest play, with an ending that’s certainly hard to swallow. But in exploring whether we should ‘condemn the fault’ itself or ‘the actor of it’, Sherman Cymru have led us to a point where it is hard to find any reason to blame either. Spectacular in design and deliverance, this is a thoroughly enjoyable cure which seductively lies over the shortcomings of the original.