Measure for Measure, 1987. Royal Shakespeare Company.

"Mark Thompson places the action beneath twin pillars, whose imposing gold bases rotate amid the inevitable smoke to reveal cables, chutes and other functional innards, or to form the towers of a seething jail, complete with medical inspections and slopping out. The stiff, tailcoated court gives way to grinning low-lifes, with the postures of inter-war Berlin, braided knickerbockers, caps from Carnaby Street, and modishly utilitarian footware." Jim Hiley, Listener 19.11.87. Opening Date: 11 November 1987; Theatre: Royal Shakespeare Theatre.Director, Nicholas Hytner; Designer, Mark Thompson; Photograph: Donald Cooper, Courtesy of AHDS,.ac.uk/performingarts.

The resiting of this grimly realistic play in Thirties Berlin shows how well its political themes can transpose from Reformation to modern Germany, HMR