Wednesday, January 25, 2006


A 'Measure' Of Greatness At the Folger

Aaron Posner's Elegant Solution to 'Problem Play'
By Peter MarksWashington Post Staff WriterWednesday, January 25, 2006

Rarely are the lust-driven crimes and punishments of "Measure for Measure" catalogued as deliciously as in Aaron Posner's captivating production for Folger Theatre. Out of Shakespeare's thorny tale the director fashions a taut, acidly funny, starkly moving play about public pieties and private appetites.

Posner's sleek version of this Shakespearean "problem play" -- forever poised between comedy and tragedy -- is easily one of Folger's most riveting offerings in recent years, a production that represents top-drawer work by a maturing theater artist. With masterly control of techniques borrowed from Hollywood, Bertolt Brecht and even Broadway's "Avenue Q," Posner unfolds a carefully honed vision that does justice to the play's ambiguous characters and wondrous poetry. Without question, the production is a watershed of the season.

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