Theatre Fairfield, which is what Fairfield University calls its theater productions, is doing a ‘70s punk-themed Measure for Measure, April 10-15 at the school’s PepsiCo Theatre.

Martha LoMonaco, who teaches at FU and is directing the piece, says she was inspired by the Punk: Chaos to Couture exhibit last year at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Good. I’ve seen quite a few Measure for Measures tinged by various demimondes. Mark Rucker did one at Yale Rep with a dark dance-club mileu. The American Repertory Theatre staged one in the actual 1970s that I remember being affected by the tumult and earthiness of that time. The Royal Shakespeare Company did Measure for Measure in the late ‘90s with a Pompey that resembled Boy George—that would be one cultural shift past punk, into New Romantic.

Of course, this is a Shakespeare script with the following line right in it:

My lord, she may be a punk; for many of them are
neither maid, widow, nor wife.

Punking it up is as good a way as any to give style and structure to this infamous “problem play.” (Cue Johnny Rotten singing “Prob-lem! Prob-lem! The problem is you!”)

Tickets for the Theatre Fairfield production of Measure for Measure are available through the Quick Center Box Office: (203) 254-4010, or toll-free 1-877-ARTS-396.  (1-877-278-7396). Tickets can also be purchased online at www.quickcenter.com.