POWERFUL PRODUCTION: UNCW Riot Grrrls 'Measure for Measure' exposes and delights

Chase Harrison
Sep 29
6 min read

LAWS OF THE LAND: 'Measure for Measure' debuts all female cast and Evelyn Bircher shapes an imposing Angelo. Courtesy photo. — ***LAWS OF THE LAND****: 'Measure for Measure' debuts all female cast and Evelyn Bircher shapes an imposing Angelo. Courtesy photo.*

Any civilized society conducts itself through laws, be it the laws of science or constitutional laws. Laws are put in place to protect, to serve, and to give some sense of order to what is by nature a chaotic world. So fundamental are they, the sweeping phrase “law of the land” often covers generalized truths that are held as self-evident. Simply though, laws stand to state what is right and what is wrong.

However, who writes the laws, who enforces the laws, who benefits from the laws, and lastly (and unfortunately), who suffers under the laws, are just as important questions to ask as is "what is right or wrong?"

It's these moral hurtles that UNCW’s Department of Theatre sets out to ask, incite, and awaken with its latest theatrical offering: an all-female staging of William Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure.” Spearheaded by Professor Christopher Marino, who’s keen understanding of the Bard has shaped countless Shakespearian productions in the Port City and out. Here Marino takes a more hands-off approach, allowing the cast to take the reins and truly reign over the entire production.

In a modern landscape wherein the very rights of women are targeted and stripped away, there is no better way to represent this story’s message. The work these ferocious warrior women have put to stage rings out with a fiery truth that rages out over constantly being overlooked.

This "Measure for Measure" production is an expression of art, not a stunt casting gimmick. Where all productions in 1600s were staged with all male casts, here these Riot Grrrls show anything that the boys can do the girls can match. The cast succussed across the board in their performances and stagecraft.

The pacing does stretch thin as the second act progresses, though, due in part more to a jarring tonal shift between darkly tragic and side-splitting slapstick comedy from scene to scene. This is more an issue with the assembly of the text rather than the production itself. Nevertheless, the cast more than brought the train into the station safe and sound when the final curtain dropped.

So, if Verona is fair and something is rotten in the state of Denmark, then we could describe the city of Vienna (where the play is set) as a pretty chill place to live. Duke Vincentio (Bela Gonzalez) has ran a loose ship for the past two decades with laws barely enforced. A detail slyly informed by the majority of the narrative happening in or around Mistress Overdone’s (Ellie Manfreda) House of Delights, the most choice of brothels—and Manfreda brings honest life-of-the-party vibes to this role and show.

The plot kicks into gear when the Duke leaves the city on what he calls a "diplomatic mission." In actuality, he’s hidden himself among the citizens in disguises as the trustworthy Friar Lodowick to observe their lives and gauge happiness. In his absence the Duke appoints his trusted friend Angelo (Evelyn Bircher) a puritan deputy to rule over a lawless if not peaceful city. Before the royal seal can dry to pass power over to Angelo, he goes about reinstating laws long lost. Immediately reshaping Vienna into his ideal of religious righteousness.

News of these crackdowns is brought to the people when loveable ne’er-do-well Pompey (Madison Barrier, endlessly hilarious) delivers the most distressing news: Angelo has outlawed all brothels! Oh, and that young Claudio (Makayla Brock) has been arrested for the crime of fornication. Sentenced to death for the act on the technicality that he and his long-term lover, Juliet (Gracyn Hall), are unwed.

The true moral corruption and hypocrisy of Angelo is splayed when Claudio's sister Isabella (Sierra Fiskin, an awe on stage) arrives to beg for her brother’s life. The Puritan falls blindly in lust with the chaste and innocent nun, propositioning her virtue for the life of her brother.

Shakespeare is known for creating some of the most vile and evil characters to ever strut across the stage; Richard III, Lady M, Tybalt, and the list can go on. The work that Evelyn Bircher puts into shaping her take of Angelo, though, skyrockets the character to the top of that list. Clad in a black suit, circular yellow tinted sunglasses, and slicked back hair; Bircher cuts an imposing figure as she rules over the role and all others on the stage. After telling the petrified Isabella the virginal cost of her brother’s life, the nun threatens to expose his scandal, to which Bircher coldly and directly aims the weaponized words: “But who will believe you?”

After telling the petrified Isabella the virginal cost of her brother’s life, the nun threatens to expose his scandal, to which Bircher coldly and directly aims the weaponized words: "But who will believe you?”

We could argue that power corrupts the character in the text, but for Bricher’s performance there is no question. Power didn’t corrupt Angelo, it just exposed him, the real him. Bircher delivers a powerful and unsettling monologue toward the middle of Act 1; with the sounds of a chilling cello underscoring venomous words and the actor bathed in a ruby lighting. Never has "falling in love” made one seem so red with anger.

Though Isabella finds herself as a pawn in a game set by men where she is both prize and victim, Sierra Fiskin grants the character a stoic grace to face it. When confronted by the sinful advances of Angelo there is not a shock to Sierra’s performance, but a sad knowing the actress coveys. Fiskin’s Isabella isn’t a babe naïve to what the world would want from her; she is well aware of those worldly wants and is terrified to find herself at the mercy of them. It is a terror intensified when her own brother begs her to give up her virginity for the sake of his own life. Besieged on all sides by the needs and wants of men, Fiskin never flinches at showing the horror of someone who’s agency has become a plaything dangled in front of them.

Besieged on all sides by the needs and wants of men, Fiskin never flinches at showing the horror of someone who’s agency has become a plaything dangled in front of them.

An element so well pinpointed and punctuated by the cast was Marino’s decision to not change the play's ending, but to change the context in which it ends. I won’t give that away here, but I will praise Fiskin for making the final moment linger hauntingly in the air with her cries as the lights faded.

While the show does sound like a heavy night at the theater, the comedic performances keep it from becoming a complete slog of sadness. Julia Outlaw (I know, cool last name) plays the sly scoundrel Lucio with a vapid air of someone who would gleefully proclaim “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.” Madison Barrier continued to score laugh after laugh throughout the show as the fool, Pompey. From perfect comedic timing with the dialogue to hilarious visuals, Barrier covers all bases. A moment evolving a mop and rubber chicken will leave audiences wiping away joyful tears.

Also, all the women do a fair job embodying the masculine nature the male roles call for, but it is Barrier who has mastered masculinity. The actress oozes machismo with her physicality and brought to the mind the comedic stylings of Jack Black when she took center stage.

Iambic pentameter, the rhythmic pattern in Shakespeare's works can be daunting. Many actors have struggled with the tongue twisters of Shakespearian dialogue, and audiences are more apt to throw their hands up in confusion. This is a challenge that Bela Gonzalez does not have; the actress practically speaks iambic pentameter as if it were a second language. The clarity and confidence in which she imbues the lyrical dialogue with leaves little to question in her performance.

The production design on display is sparse but spectacular. The stage walls are lined with empty picture frames, giving to a metaphorical framing of the world and how the characters are framed within it. The centerpiece of it all being a mini, retractable stage built within the set itself, framed by a red curtain. The scenic design by Jenna Houck allows for quick transitions between scenes, and when paired with Delaney Golden and Mark D. Sorensen’s spot-on costume design, it all invokes an authentic sense of the Prohibition Era. This time period design matches perfectly with the show’s message of outdated laws being enforced upon an unresponsive populace.

The cast and crew of “Measure for Measure” took to the stage with a statement to make; that this misguided, mislabeled comedy spoke of travesties still carried out against women centuries after it was written. If the play’s themes include taking ones power, then this UNCW Riot Grrrls production is all about one thing: taking that power back!