Washington Post - Somewhat Recommended
"...Still, something is lacking when the emotional transaction that feels most completely inhabited is the one between Mariana, a secondary character suffused here with extraordinary presence and feeling by Natascia Diaz, and Angelo, the uptight sexual hypocrite who is disastrously left in charge in Vienna by the inscrutable duke."
MetroWeekly - Highly Recommended
"...And Munby gives us one thing more. Dancing the cabaret, making up its waiters and audience and then playing the extras throughout, the ensemble here does more than just support the action. Whether as onlookers, paid performers, victims or witnesses to the hypocrisies of their world, each as easily as any Claudio or Isabella, is vulnerable to being singled out. Munby offers not just a faceless, nameless ensemble. Though they may be decades younger, fitter and prettier, they are us."
Talkin Broadway - Recommended
"...Measure for Measure is famously described as one of William Shakespeare's "problem plays," but its consideration of the tangled interplay among sex, justice, and politics means that it remains eternally timely. Director Jonathan Munby has created a thoughtful and vivid production for Washington's Shakespeare Theatre Company that presents the parallels to contemporary life without belaboring them."
Washington City Paper - Somewhat Recommended
"...You could argue, and some scholar probably has, that Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure never found its ideal shape—but then plays written for a king, about a king, to be performed in front of a king, sometimes require a compromise or three. That’s one argument advanced, in any case, for why this problematic drama of license and limits goes all lickspittle at the end."
Washingtonian - Recommended
"...Still, the show draws most of its strength from flawless performances, particularly by Parkinson as the inappropriately named Angelo. A volte-face such as his can either explain itself through rank hypocrisy or temporary insanity, and Parkinson seems to opt for the latter, portraying his Angelo as falling under the influence of feverish dreams about the chaste Isabella. He repeatedly grabs his crotch then shakes his hand away with disgust, and in one scene is downright terrifying as he tries to force himself on a screaming Isabella."
DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended
"...Director Jonathan Munby has set his fabulous new staging of Measure for Measure in a fanciful 1930s, pre-war Vienna. But it could as well be taking place in any society where the prevailing moral barometer has found some extra wiggle room."
MD Theatre Guide - Highly Recommended
"...Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Measure for Measure—like almost all STC shows—is a lavishly beautiful show. The production values dazzled. Set designer Alexander Dodge has created a glorious and delightfully low-tech maze of rolling panels that the ensemble twirls into multiple configurations of a prison, a monastery, a convent. From above grand black and red striped National Socialist-esque banners descend to create the political settings, a huge burgundy draped velvet backdrop instantly creates the steamily luxuriant cabaret. Behind it all are these marvelously peeling giant gray walls—bravo to the team that created those."
DCTheatreScene - Recommended
Measure for Measure is not a play that deals in easy answers, but Jonathan Munby’s new production at the Shakespeare Theatre makes no problem of losing yourself in a night of spectacle. When a pair of strippers in nun’s habits open their robes and spin their tasseled breasts, it’s hard to think about your groceries.
