TORTURE ON STAGE: PETER ZADEK’S STAGING OF MEASURE FOR MEASURE

In his 1991 French production of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, the fourth of his career, German director Peter Zadek amplified the low-life scenes, first in the streets of Vienna and also in the prison, where he presented Pompey, the tapster-pimp turned apprentice executioner, as being as fully involved in his new job as he had been previously in the streets of Vienna under Mistress Overdone’s orders: now he is chopping up and sawing up naked females on stage. This paper will present some of the aspects of this expressionist sado-masochist version of the play, and discuss its legitimacy.