Measure for (somewhat sado-masochistic) Measure

It's been a day of surprises here on Planet Bureaucrat, none of which, I am delighted to say are work, or even politics, related.

Ros and I are at Wroxton College, the United Kingdom campus for Fairleigh Dickinson University, a New Jersey based institution, hosted by their Director here, Nicholas Baldwin. Our visit here was founded on an opportunity to see Shakespeare performed live, and our show 'Measure for Measure'.

I admit that, having studied Shakespeare at school, it only ever seemed to live when exclaimed, so I can't claim to be a huge fan. And when the performance began with a number of the cast in bondage outfits being whipped by others, I was not necessarily convinced that the evening was going to go well.

However, once the bondage gear had receded from the consciousness, the power of the plot, the quality of the acting and the Globe-like setting of the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon began to work their magic. Read in isolation, Shakespeare's plays require a suspension of credibility and a sense of creativity, yet performed you forget this and are drawn like a magnet to the morality of the piece.

And so it was this evening. I found myself curious to know what would happen - an advantage of not knowing the play, I guess - and enjoying the humour with which events unfolded.

It would naturally be wrong of me to reveal the plot, even though it is so well known. But, if you're in Stratford, and it's still on, I can but commend it to you. And, in any event, the Swan is a wonderful performance space...