INTERVIEW: This ‘Measure for Measure’ is transported to a 1980s hospital
Photo: Measure for Measure, courtesy of the Eno River Players, is set in a Vienna hospital, circa the 1980s. Photo courtesy of Ken Yotsukura / Provided by Everyman Agency with permission.
It’s a time-honored tradition to find unique settings and time periods for a revitalized look at the work of William Shakespeare. Denzel Washington’s Julius Caesar appeared on Broadway more than a decade ago and leaned into the military undercurrents that are evident in the play. Patrick Stewart’s Macbeth was set in a military hospital, replete with cots, bedpans, and nurses coming and going.
The hospital setting is a solid one for the Bard, and the good folks at Eno River Players have decided to fashion their own medical facility for a new production of Measure for Measure, currently running at Target Margin Theater’s The Doxsee in Brooklyn. Performances continue through Saturday, March 1.
This exploration of “sexual politics and social justice” is set in a small Christian hospital in Vienna, circa the 1980s. Nine hard-working ensemble members bring the action to life, all under the leadership of director Leo Egger, who is the founding artistic director of the Eno River Players. He wrote, directed and produced original adaptations of Mikhail Bulgakov’s Dead Souls, Plato’s dialogues, and, most recently, Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy, coauthored with Charlie Mayhew, according to his official biography.
Recently Egger exchanged emails with Hollywood Soapbox. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
Why Measure for Measure in 2025? What drew you to this particular Shakespearean play?
Measure for Measure is a text that abounds with contradiction and mystery. If it’s a comedy, it’s not all that funny, and it’s certainly not a tragedy. It is heavy with irony, rancidity and darkness that is uncomfortable, especially because it lacks a cathartic conclusion in the act of a cheerful wedding or a great bloodletting, as we are familiar with in Shakespeare’s plays. As part of our mission, our company engages with work that does not provide simple answers. As our first Shakespeare play in the city, it seemed to me to be the only possible choice.
I was drawn to this play because of the figure of the Duke, who acts, in my mind, as a sort of amateur comic dramatist, playing with and manipulating the lives of those around him to satisfy his whims — and what he thinks the audience will enjoy. He is blind to the toll his actions take. For him, the show is a comedy in which he is the hero, and for those around him, it is a strange and brutal tragedy.
He wields the law as a tool of his whims, shirking responsibility when it suits him and punishing personal grievances with cruelty. Out of the tragedy he orchestrates, he attempts to impose a comedic resolution in the final act, arranging marriages for everyone and announcing his own marriage to Isabella, who has never expressed any interest in marriage and may still long to return to the nunnery. The ending feels contrived — and it’s meant to. The Duke’s theatrical games reveal his desire to cast himself as a hero, both for his people and for the audience. Yet, we see through the act.
I think the connection of this figure to our political leaders goes without saying. The Vienna as depicted in this play also mirrors onto our current country in many ways — morally confused, decadent and diseased.
Do the themes of sexual politics and social justice still reverberate in the Bard’s text?
This play is essentially about projection, power and the tension between civil order and our animal essence as human beings. Isabella, who wants to remove herself from society by joining a convent, is brusquely forced back into the world when she tries to save her brother from death by going to Angelo who demands she have sex with him in exchange for her brother’s life.
The hypocrisy of those in power who preach sexual morality but act promiscuously and even violently is a story that I fear will reverberate forever.
How does the hospital setting enhance the story?
When I first started working on the play, I had a dream about the Duke cleaning up a streak of blood down a long-tiled hallway. I couldn’t let go of the image, and so I decided to let myself give into it.
The hospital is the frame from which the story emerges. The Duke, who at the beginning of the play is a janitor cleaning a dilapidated Christian hospital, creates the story with the people who surround him: doctors, nurses, chaplains and the like. The story is a projection, a fantasy of his own making.
A literal reasoning for this setting is that Measure for Measure is importantly set during a Syphilis epidemic. The Duke, who has not been enforcing the sexual morality laws of the city for many years, hands the dukedom over to Angelo for this very reason. Illness in this Vienna abounds — both literally and figuratively. A poor Christian hospital during a sexual epidemic — an arena of politics, pathos and morality — is an exciting starting point for this story.
What’s it like working with this nine-member ensemble?
It’s a wonderful group of actors — unafraid to try hard things, embrace unknowing and make brave choices. There is some doubling up, which is a joy to watch.
Is true wonder in the theater still possible?
We live in a world today where the normal state is sleepwalking — we seek opinions that confirm those we hold, watch 30-second videos and live an increasingly digital life. Theater is one of the few places where wonder has ever been possible. It is a transient community that springs up every night with the hope of having something real happen. I believe Artaud says something about the theater being one of the only places that reminds us that time does not equate to enslavement. I like that.
We need to believe in the power of art to awaken us to life. We need to believe that life is more than a near-sighted vision of life, that there are such things as justice, beauty and truth.
In the theater, all action which appears banal and ordinary in our everyday lives has the potential to be reignited and charged with meaning, spirit and purpose. My approach has always been to lean into a spirit of make-believe in my shows. I believe work that forces us to use our child-like imagination has the potential to make us real again.
How does this production practice that principle of doing more with less?
Our company operates with small budgets in a warehouse theater in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. We never try to hide from the fact that our shows are somewhat scrappy — that is part of who we are.
This production is interested in the Duke/custodian’s fantasy and projection, so simple but playful design choices do a great deal of work. A mop is a mop, a scepter, a staff, a weapon — all at once!
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Measure for Measure, directed by Leo Egger, continues through Saturday, March 1, at Target Margin Theater’s The Doxsee in Brooklyn. The production comes courtesy of the Eno River Players. Click here for more information and tickets.
