THEATER REVIEWS : A ‘Measure’ by Oasis to Please Purists

As the Oasis Theatre Company’s “Measure for Measure or If It Don’t Fit You Must Acquit” holds a mirror up to contemporary American society, even purists will delight in the respect, skill and ingenuity with which director Endre Hules has adapted Shakespeare’s final and darkest comedy. A meditation on the abuse of power, compromised principles and abdicated responsibility has become a hilariously sardonic commentary on our politics and values.

A video backdrop of CNN news clips recapping events since the 1994 Republican juggernaut suggests a new reason for why the Clintonesque Duke (Jon Menick) has temporarily ceded power to Angelo (Joel Leffert), a sour, repressive dictator whose legislated sexual repression spells death for intemperate Claudio (Mark Doerr).

Roaming his dominion disguised as a flamboyant Pentecostal evangelist, Menick’s Duke deftly ricochets between compassionate contemplation of his subjects’ distress and outrageous parody.

Except for outright cuts, Shakespeare’s verse is kept pretty much intact, though stretched like silly putty into the cadences of campaign stump speeches, hellfire sermons, news broadcasts, game shows and e-mail.

Yet Hules and his superb cast have taken impressive care to preserve the emotional core of the pivotal scenes. Especially effective are the multi-layered exchanges between lecherous Angelo and Claudio’s conflicted sister Isabel (Karen Foster). The modernized conceit supplies inventive solutions to some of the play’s flaws--attributing the Duke’s changing decrees to shifting opinion polls, and his unexpected romantic overtures to Isabel to her rising approval ratings, is an inspired interpretation.

* “Measure for Measure”: Tonight at 8; Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m.; Wednesday-April 19 , 8 p.m.; April 20, 2 and 8 p.m.; April 21, 2 p.m.