"This Measure for Measure doesn’t measure up! It’s a confusing and muddled adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s more obscure works, performed as a live radio play - of sorts. While this concept isn’t novel, its execution flounders, defying its premise and leaving the audience scratching their collective heads, bemused and befuddled."

House + Body is a new-ish (2016) theatre company with a mission to “produce radical adaptations of works from the global classical canon.” All very well, indeed.

I’ve seen clever and innovative takes on the classics. In fact, Stratford will be presenting this season a modern version of ‘Macbeth’, setting the uncanny action during the Quebec biker wars of the 1990s. Last season, Soulpepper presented a stunning reimagining of Chekov’s ‘Three Sisters’, shifting the action from 1890s Imperialist Russia to Nigeria’s Biafran War of the late 1960s.

Now, director Christopher Manousos has adapted Shakespeare’s 1604 “problem” play (it’s neither a tragedy, comedy, nor history), choosing to have the play performed as a live radio stream inside a contemporary sound studio with only five actors playing all twenty characters.

A neat idea, to be sure.

But it doesn’t follow through.

The Studio Theatre at Crow’s is a small rectangular room with bleacher-style seating around its perimeter. This is the sound studio from which the play will be performed. In the middle of the room are two tables together, set up with audio mixer, microphones and plenty of foley equipment, which, presumably, the cast will be using to make the various sound effects needed in an auditory production.

As the cast ambles in, we learn from the host (Danté Prince) that this is an episode of “Soundwave Shakespeare,” a weekly radio/podcast program where various Shakespearean plays are performed live. Performers are introduced, including the show's star producer (Sébastian Heins) and his lover (Katherine Gauthier), and an actress (Beck Lloyd) stepping in at the last minute to play the role of Isabella.

It's all good so far.

Then the problems begin.

Although the microphones and equipment look like we’re going to witness a solely vocal production, it quickly becomes apparent that we are seeing a live, play version of the show. The tables are sent to either end of the room along with the mics and most of the sound effects props. Actors do create some of their own sounds, but they’re off-mic and don’t sound authentic. A jug and glass of water, bells, small chains, and keys don’t have the desired weighty effect, and some weren’t used at all (by the way, boots on a melamine tabletop don’t sound very seventeenth-century). The foley fell flat. With text memorized, actors play out their scenes under full lighting and pre-recorded sound effects.

This is a live theatrical production. What happened to the radio part?

This is where Manousos turns his own concept on its head. He seems to have forgotten that live radio dramas and podcasts (think “War of the Worlds”) are presented purely through sound, relying on voice acting, music and sound effects to create a story. Why, then, does Manousos have his actors off-book, in blocked scenes, with multi-coloured lighting design and Riel Reddick-Stevens’ pre-recorded sound effects (a recording of water dripping when there’s a jug right on the table?)?

That’s what we expect for stage plays, but this is a radio play.

I’m confused.

Things get even more confusing when the microphones are re-introduced in act two, and actors rarely wander from them.

There’s also the matter of character relationships. For the most part, we only know the actors for the multiple Shakespearian characters they’re playing. Yet, Beck Lloyd, the actress playing Isabella, is stepping in at the last minute to play the lead role. At the end of Act One, we learn that she’s in or has had a relationship with the other female cast member. This revelation has no explanation, no understanding and is never revisited. Additionally, Lloyd is so good that it’s a stretch to believe she’s playing as a replacement.

This could be a fun concept. There are some fine live play versions of radio dramas such as Joe Landry’s “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play” - actors standing at mics, scripts on stands, performing their own sound effects under minimal lighting, with interesting subplot branching off the main narrative. That’s what I was expecting.

I also wanted to know more about who the actors are when they’re NOT playing their Shakespearean counterparts. This choice might flush out the female love affair and other relationships, including the meaning of the play’s last sentence.

The five-member cast overall is quite good, with performances that run the gamut from adequate to masterful. Beck Lloyd and Jamie Cavanagh are the strongest in their nuanced understanding of iambic pentameter and rhyming couplets. Although they’re all working hard, it’s hard to distinguish who’s who among the multiple characters they're playing. This is where voice performance needs to be especially effective (since this is a “radio” play?!)

It's difficult to comment on Chris Malkowski’s lighting design. As a live stage play, his spotlights, colours and fluorescents could add dimension and depth to scenes. Here, they just seem random and, as a radio play, excessive.

I’m confused again.

Fundamentally, the difficulty with this production is that it doesn’t know what it wants to be. Is it a live radio stream? Then why have actors memorize their lines and move about an overly lit room away from their mics?

Is it a stage play? Then why have the second half performed at a table of mics?

I’m all for new concepts, but they need to be consistent and make sense.

Manousos needs to pick a medium and stick with it.

Running time: Approximately 2 hours, 10 minutes with one intermission.

House + Body in association with Crow’s Theatre presents
“Measure for Measure”
Adapted and directed by Christopher Manousos after Shakespeare

Lighting designed by Chris Malkowski
Sound designed by Riel Reddick-Stevens
Performers – Jamie Cavanagh, Katherine Gauthier, Sébastian Heins, Beck Lloyd, Danté Prince

The production runs until March 16, 2025, at Crow’s Studio Theatre, 345 Carlaw Ave, Toronto.
For tickets, call the Box Office at (647) 341-7390 ext. 1010 or email boxoffice@crowstheatre.com