The Kott-Marowitz Dialogues: ‘Measure for Measure’

Although included among the comedies in the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, Measure for Measure long found itself disapproved on grounds of moral impropriety, and was restored to critical favour only to enjoy the dubious dignity of becoming a ‘problem’ play – which left open the question of whether the ‘problem’ was Shakespeare's, as man or craftsman, his society's, or perhaps even our own. In the theatre, too, the pendulum has swung from the easy contempt of the recent ‘permissive’ past for the value placed by Isabella upon her virginity to the renewed respect of feminist critics for her right to control her own body. Still, her silence in response to the Duke's marriage proposal permits actors and directors to make their own climactic meaning. Jan Kott's essay on the play, ‘Head for Maidenhead, Maidenhead for Head’, first appeared in the old Theatre Quarterly, and was subsequently reprinted in his The Gender of Rosalind. Here, Kott reconsiders the play, in discussion with Charles Marowitz, who has himself directed Measure for Measure, and also written about it in his Recycling Shakespeare (1991).