This week on Heavenly Shows and Unnecessary Letters: Measure for Measure, directed by Dominic Dromgoole for the Globe Theatre in 2015, and written in 1604 by William Shakespeare.

EPISODE NOTES: There’s a lot of discussion in the world about Shakespeare’s place in the English canon and education system, a lot of people saying that we’d have a better time of it if we used work that was more relevant to students and to modern life. We here at Heavenly Shows actually sort of agree with that--Shakespeare belongs in a drama class more than it does in every English class-- but we disagree with the notion that Shakespeare’s not relevant. It’s great drama, and great drama is work that talks about big ideas in the small context of actual people. What does a Shakespeare play relevant to 2020 look like? We watched Measure for Measure, and I couldn’t tell you- I mean, it’s about the nature of justice and mercy, and overreaching of the state when it comes to doing violence against human beings, and about corruption and how vital it is for us to emphasise ethical conduct when it comes to how we view our leaders: but I couldn’t possibly draw any lines between that and 2020. Maybe they’re right, nothing to learn at all.

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Editing by Tammy Sarah Linde and Luke O'Hagan

Music by Luke O'Hagan

Audio excerpt from Henry V used under a Creative Commons License from Archive.org - license available here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

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