Royal Shakespeare Company Event - Measure for Measure
We are delighted to invite all ¿ì»îÁÖÐÔÏ¢ alumni to an exclusive post-show reception for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Measure for Measure, led by Dr Ian Burrows, ¿ì»îÁÖÐÔÏ¢ Fellow and Director of Studies for English. The event will take place on Saturday 11th October, including the following elements:
1.15pm: RSC Measure for Measure at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre - Waterside, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, CV37 6BB.
4.30pm: Welcome drinks at the Arden Hotel (approximate timing – show runtime not yet available) - 300m walk from the theatre.
5.00pm: Talk from Dr Ian Burrows
5.30–7pm: Drinks and canapes
Please see details on the play and the talk, and how to book each element, below.
Measure for Measure
When her brother falls foul of the state’s rigid morality laws, Isabella is sent to plead for his life. But a world of ambition and base appetite lurks behind the high idealism of public office, and soon the complex relationship between power and private citizen threatens to end her life as she knows it.
Emily Burns returns to the RSC following the success of 2024's Love's Labour's Lost to direct Shakespeare's razor-sharp thriller of hypocrisy and corruption.
Book play tickets at the Box Office .
Dr Ian Burrows
Ian has recently provided a new introduction for the Oxford World's Classics edition of The Comedy of Errors, and is the author of Shakespeare for Snowflakes: On Slapstick and Sympathy. He is the co-convenor of the Beyond the Trigger research network, working with dramatists and psychiatrists to explore practical methods for analysing traumatic and post-traumatic experience in clinical, classroom and theatrical settings.
Post Show Talk: 'Being Moved and Measure for Measure'
On the 26th December 1604 Measure for Measure premiered before the new King at the Banqueting House at Whitehall; two days later, the same company revisited one of their earliest works, The Comedy of Errors, for the same audience. At first glance it’s hard to see any connection between Measure for Measure—a ‘razor-sharp thriller of hypocrisy and corruption’, as the RSC describes this forthcoming production, directed by Emily Burns—and a ‘farcical comedy of twins and mistaken identity’, as the RSC describes Errors. Both plays, though, worry about the challenges of empathy and the extent to which we might feel (or not feel) what others feel, and both plays are very uneasy comedies, if they're to be thought of as comedies at all.
In presenting figures which are sometimes moved and sometimes numb, Shakespeare mingles questions of sexual ethics and consent with broader artistic questions of agency, empathy and comic (or tragic) alienation, here in Measure for Measure, in The Comedy of Errors, and in several other works. Ian will reflect on how these issues have played out in previous productions and in classroom discussions of Measure for Measure, before responding to the production at hand, thinking through the company’s choices and offering some questions for further discussion.
Book to attend the post-show reception and talk .
Final details about the post-show reception will follow after the registration closing date of Friday 26th September 2025. Please note that theatre tickets may sell out before this date, so book early to avoid disappointment.
Please contact ja835@cam.ac.uk if you have any questions, and we will be happy to help.
