Major and Minor Roles

I love it that Tesky includes Lucio in his list of the great male roles. Pierre Diennet, a wonderful clown, plays our Lucio, and I watch him finesse his performance with every rehearsal. 'Modernizing' the role is exactly right, though I wouldn't have said it before reading Tesky's comment. In the community read in Brooklin on Monday I tried putting Lucio in my own mouth--and clumsy it was indeed, very unlike what I see Diennet carrying off.

The Duke is the mystery at the center of the play. Why does he skip town, leaving Angelo in charge? I'm with Tesky in seeing him more as a beneficent force, though in the community read Ellen called him a wimp. It was during his reign that the world of Shakespeare's Vienna fell into such supposed moral ruin. Director Frace and this cast portray him rather as ill, failing and searching, testing, perhaps for a possible successor.

But I am very interested in hearing more about how Tesky sees Measure for Measure as a "demonstration of Shakespeare's progressive sense of structure of comedy and tragedy."

And while in a very minor role, I nevertheless live each rehearsal to see Barnadine emerge onstage.