Measure for Measure/The Duchess of Malfi Dramatic Interpretations

Question 1

Cheek by Jowl (Donnellan) - Isabella

Answer 1

‘Sweetly coy, but also canny’; ‘a powerful woman…but a tear-stained wreck’

Question 2

Cheek by Jowl (Donnellan) - thematic

Answer 2

‘relationship between the power of the state and the freedom of the individual’
‘all is ‘righted’, but the damage is done’
‘marries the the humanity and caricature in characters’
‘characters…all manipulative monsters’

Question 3

Cheek by Jowl (Donnellan) - Staging

Answer 3

‘Putin-era parallels’

‘Angelo angles to rape’

Question 4

Duchess of Malfi - Sam Wanamaker Playhouse (Dromgoole)

Answer 4

Duchess ‘stoic certainty’, ‘bewildered and exasperated by…cruelty’
Bosola - ‘mixture of villany and conscience’

Question 5

Cheek by Jowl (Donnellan) - Angelo

Answer 5

‘embodies bureaucratic intransigence and chaos’, ‘he’s a villain but at least he knows it’

Question 6

Duchess of Malfi - Jamie Lloyed

Answer 6

Bosola - ‘gnawing conscience’

Staging ‘choreographed movements…a dance of death’

Question 7

Cheek by Jowl (Donnellan) - the Duke

Answer 7

‘Undergoing a crisis of faith’
‘very far from in control of the situation he affects to be masterminding’
‘tries to make political capital out of the “happy ending”…seems like another abuse of power’
‘oscillates wildly between smooth leader and insecure autocrat’