Half Measures is the first of Tim Prentki’s three plays in the Encounters With Shakespeare series. Scenes from William Shakespeare’s, Measure for Measure (1604) introduce the Duke of Vienna, Lord Angelo, his Deputy, and Isabella, a novice nun, sister to Claudio, a man condemned to death for lechery under a law revived and enforced by the ‘severe’ Lord Angelo.
These episodes are played against original scenes set in Liverpool, 2016. In the 21st century storyline, Nadia is a twenty-three-year-old woman from Eastern Ukraine, smuggled illegally into England via the port of Liverpool, and Angelo Saldini is a premier league football star from Italy. The dramatic action opens in seventeenth-century Vienna, and unfolds over eleven scenes, five of which dramatize Nadia’s journey to, and life in Liverpool.
Half Measures premiered at the Rose Theatre, Edge Hill University, in October 2016 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/performingarts-edgehill/albums/72157675534937705/with/30369261192), and a new production played to capacity audiences over two nights at Shakespeare North Playhouse Studio (September 2022). On each occasion, some twenty people out of 50 chose to return after a break, to deliberate on questions prompted by the play. OHTC seeks to make Shakespeare’s language and meaning immediately accessible to a contemporary audience, and people commented on this, as follows,
The modern version helped people understand the Shakespearean version.
There wasn’t a single wasted moment on stage. It was short and snappy whilst conveying a clear message.
The performances were entertaining but subtle. There were funny moments that were taken over by the dark themes.
The performance was intimate. One half of the play would set up tension for the other half because you knew something bad was going to happen but you still had hope that it wouldn’t.
It was like flipping between two sides of a Double A-Side single record.
OHTC also sought to address common barriers to engagement with Shakespeare’s works, and audience members commented,
I feel like I’ve learned something.
This show is my access point to Shakespeare. I’ve been coming to the Playhouse since it opened, and taking part in lots of events. Before now, going to Shakespeare’s plays would have been like listening to something in a foreign language, or watching a ballet, or something like that. This play is really different. Like I said, it was an access point for me, because what was happening in Liverpool in 2016 helped me to understand what was going on in Vienna in 1604.
I had to study Shakespeare years ago for ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels. It was really difficult and never made much sense to me. This play made me feel like Shakespeare had to do with the world I live in.
Half Measures presented opportunities for ‘ethical encounters’ between audiences and a young Ukrainian woman, in circumstances in which her personal history and unfolding circumstances could be understood from her perspective. Several people commented that they were struck by the relevance of the theme to current controversies around gender and power, and the ongoing war in Ukraine. Some stated that the portrayal of Nadia enabled people to begin to understand, for the first time, the situation of Ukrainian refugees from their perspective.
History repeats itself and this play showed that although the context changes, ‘human nature’ doesn’t, and misogyny is still a real problem 400 years in the future.
I wanted to walk up on that stage and punch Lord Angelo’s lights out!
The performances were captivating. All of them – especially Nadia, the young Ukrainian woman, and Angelo the footballer.
It was relevant to the current war in Ukraine and made people realise how oblivious most of us were to the conflict in 2016. It made me think of Ukrainians in Liverpool now, refugees from a war that’s still going on. It made me think again about our responsibilities to people like them.
Our decision to elicit audience responses at an open script reading of Lear in Brexitland, prior to beginning rehearsals for the 2023 run, was a direct consequence of our conversations with audiences for Half Measures.