Thought For Food to Stage All-Female MEASURE FOR MEASURE at Red Sandcastle Theatre

Thought For Food presents an all-female cast of William Shakespeare's MEASURE FOR MEASURE, on stage November 23 - December 4 at Red Sandcastle Theatre. Tickets $15-$25 on sale at Brown Paper Tickets: thought4food.brownpapertickets.com.

With a plot that could have been ripped from today's headlines, Measure for Measure reveals that political corruption, sex scandals, hypocrisy, and anti-vice laws are not a new preoccupation and that the people charged with enforcing virtue are only incorruptible while they remain untempted. This all-female staging of Shakespeare's provocative comedy transports the story to a Weimar-era cabaret where music, dance, and titillation illuminate Measure for Measure's clash between lust and law.

Unable to control his people's abandonment of state-sanctionEd Morality, The Duke of Vienna (Jacklyn Francis, Richard III, Shakespeare in the Ruff) hands power to his austere advisor, Lord Angelo (Deborah Drakeford, Marat/Sade, Soulpepper - Dora nomination) who zealously enforces long dormant chastity laws. But when the pious young nun Isabella (Helen Juvonen, Aunt Dan and Lemon, Shadowtime Productions) pleads for the life of her condemned brother, Claudio (Leah Holder, Much Ado About Nothing, Single Thread), she unknowingly awakens Angelo's own sensual nature and sets into motion a chain of events that will reveal the dark depths of thwarted desire.

Thought For Food is putting a feminist spin on Shakespeare's sexually-fraught script by casting it entirely with powerhouse women from the Toronto theatre scene: GeneviEve Adam (Deceitful Above All Things, SummerWorks), Joella Crichton (The Memo, Thought For Food), Stephanie Folkins (Romeo and Juliet, Theatre New Brunswick), Margaret Lamarre (Julius Caesar, 16Endean Collective), Catherine McNally (Boston Marriage, Headstrong Collective - Dora Nomination), Cara Pantalone (25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, KooGle Theatre), Alison Smiley (Fantastic Extravagance, Steady State Theatre), and Victoria Urquhart (Julius Caesar, Spur-of-the-Moment Shakespeare).

Directed by Tyler Seguin (The Trial of Judith K, Thought For Food), MEASURE FOR MEASURE features production design by Holly Meyer-Dymny (SMILE Theatre), and original music by Melissa Morris (St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival).

Thought for Food, known for their hilarious, bitingly intelligent skewering of the darker forces in our daily lives, has brought their signature approach to this audacious script. Their most recent production, THE TRIAL OF JUDITH K. (a gender-reversed take on Kafka's The Trial) was a critical and audience hit, described as "Laugh-out-loud funny before it hits you with its shockingly dark ending" (Stage Door Reviews), "SNL-worthy...Utter madness" (The Theatre Reader) and "The kind of play that makes you wonder why society accepts answers more than it asks questions" (Toronto Stage).

Thought For Food Productions is an artist collective whose primary interest is theatre that explores and celebrates the qualities unique to live performance. Overt theatricality, an interest in performer/audience relationships, and an emphasis on spontaneous or random elements, have become the signature qualities of the company's productions. Led by Helen Juvonen and Tyler Seguin, Thought For Food has produced over a dozen shows including tours to Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Victoria.

More information at thought4food.ca.

Photo Credit: Greg Ellwand

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