As for you,
Say what you can, my false o'erweighs your true.

In Vienna the Duke resigns his power. Forgotten laws are enforced with bloody constraint. A man is condemned to die; there will be a child out of wedlock; the mother, abandoned. A woman nearly sworn into sisterhood is faced with an unholy covenant. Those outside the city become prisoners within. Fortunes rise and fall in the tumult, and out of sight of the eyes of the law, plans are made to punish the powerful.

It is a well worn cliché about Shakespeare’s plays, but Measure for Measure really is as relevant today as it was when it was first performed early in the reign of James I. Powerful people, motivated by personal desires disguised as political process, are shielded by their privileage from the consequences of their actions. Those without power must adapt to survive and, everywhere, power tends to corrupt.

In our 38th production, the Abbey Shakespeare Players took on Shakespeare's morally ambiguous comedy for the first time. The production was performed from 30th July to 2nd August 2025.