Oberlin’s department of theater and dance put on a production of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure last weekend in Hall Auditorium. In some respects, it was hard and sleek — using fascistic military garb for the rank and file employees of the state and an American accent that had no time to twang or affect foppish British diction. However, the play instead, it splayed itself out over a three-hour run time with numerous lengthy scenes.

The first half is best described as a constellation of people’s stories. While set in Vienna, little history or local information is used, as is usual for Shakespeare. This Vienna is a far-off place, populated with stock characters who often have obvious roles. There is Claudio (College junior Derrick Bean), who is imprisoned and wants to escape; his sister Isabella (double-degree senior Courtney Merell), who wants to free him; Lucio (College junior Alex Huntsberger), the comedic, lying self-aggrandizer and Pompey (College junior Emelio DiSabato), the clown who is dragged by the ear repeatedly in the production. There are more ambiguous characters as well, such as Escalus (College senior Matthew Castleman), Angelo (College junior Enrico Nassi) and, most importantly, the Duke (College senior Tom Curtin).

Within these molds, our student actors tried to make each character more alive. For Huntsberger and DiSabato, this meant being as humorous as possible with the lines they had. DiSabato had a harder job, as some of his character’s jokes were dead before he even uttered them. Despite this weakness, the characters elicited laughter on multiple occasions.

Meanwhile, Curtin, Nassi, Castleman and Merrell had challenges of their own. Their characters frequently fit their types and perhaps nothing more. To combat this, Nassi employed a more dynamic temperament than others in the production, allowing his character to rant, scream and experience strong visceral moments on stage. Merrell did the same, and it seemed to work. As for Curtin and Castleman, they both dwelled on the more ambiguous elements of their characters. For Escalus, that meant being introverted enough to seem thoughtful, despite the limited presence of the character. Curtin’s Duke, though, took advantage of the situations that emerge because of his absence, concocting a plot and unleashing it in the second half.

The Duke’s plan involves a series of public embarrassments followed by marriages. While pretending to be a friar, he allows Isabella and himself to be treated coarsely by Angelo and Lucio, then reveals himself as the Duke and after scolding various members of society, slowly marries many of the characters to each other. Curtin provided an aloof, intelligent, almost infallible person for this independent-thinking character.

In every production of Measure for Measure, there is a crucial moment for the Duke and the entire play — after Claudio’s release and the several engagements, when the Duke asks Isabella to marry him. Strangely, there is no written response from Isabella, and this indeterminacy has been exploited in many ways since the play was written. Here, the moment was rendered as an afterthought of a duke who sees his plan working so well that he decides to throw in some reward for himself. Curtin delivered the line so smoothly that I think it may have created the greatest awkward joke ever. Perhaps this exposes the less-than-perfect nature of the Duke, which had so far seemed divine compared to Angelo’s sex-for-stay-of-execution logic.

Finally, while frequently providing a silent background, the whores/nuns and soliders/guards provided strong support for the work. One must wonder if the actors playing the soliders/guards suffered for their art — they stood still for  long periods of time, then snapped to attention and turned in tight martial style. Their sometimes unnoticed devotion to their work was admirable and seemed to embody the work ethic of all who were involved in the production.