With Modern Motifs, ‘Measure for Measure’ to Spotlight Sexual Violence

UPDATED: APRIL 5, 2016, at 1:30 p.m.

In an age when the issue of sexual assault on college campuses has garnered increasing attention, the Hyperion Shakespeare Company aims to create a platform for discussion through its refocused, revitalized take on “Measure for Measure.” The Shakespeare play centers on the conflict that arises after stringent, straitlaced ruler Angelo sentences a man named Claudio to death for having engaged in sexual intercourse before marriage. Claudio’s sister, Isabella, though pious and chaste, fights for her brother’s right to live. Soon, a convoluted power construct evolves between the characters, and tension builds as the question of Claudio’s fate is left to deliberation.

Mikhaila R. Fogel ’16, president of the Hyperion Shakespeare Company and director of “Measure for Measure,” means for the production to encourage dialogue about Harvard’s sexual climate. “At the beginning of the year, when the results of sexual climate survey were released,” Fogel says, “the director for the Office of the Arts convened a meeting, gathering leaders in the arts, [asking,] ‘How could the arts respond to terrifying statistics about instances of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and coercion?’ I immediately thought of ‘Measure for Measure.’”

Driven by a vision to more accurately reflect present-day campus culture and sexual climate, Fogel looks to contemporize the centuries-old play through the use of modern costumes and props. She also aims to draw from film noir aesthetic elements, and in interweaving motifs such as shadowy lights and unsettling music hopes to elucidate problems surrounding the cycle of sexual violence as transparently as possible.

Members of the cast agree that Fogel’s direction in revitalizing “Measure for Measure” will prove insightful and significant. Brian A. Cami ’19, who plays Angelo, says that his character will appear more human and normal, rather than just one-dimensionally villainous. “What [will make] him so terrifying is that aspect of humanity,” Cami says. “In sexual assault, [it’s] not always just ‘bad’ people. Sometimes it’s ‘normal’ people.”

Moreover, though “Measure for Measure” hopes to revolve around serious themes, it also aspires to strike a careful balance between severity and lightheartedness. “Life isn’t all dark,” says cast member Kelley Guinn McArtor ’16. “[Fogel] really makes the light moments hilarious and memorable without taking away from the more serious material…. It’s a great illustration of the reality we live in.”

“Measure for Measure” will run April 8 to 16 at the Loeb Experimental Theater.

CORRECTION: April 5, 2016

A previous version of this article misspelled the name of Kelley Guinn McArtor ’16.