Measure for Measure

performed by the Creation Theatre Company.

 At the end of this production, prison bars surround and trap the characters who have just been paired off in the obligatory happy ending. The same prison bars we have seen earlier caging the desperate Claudio, the defiant Pompey and their fellow-victims now return and close in around the entire cast, sentenced to marriages that are incredible or can scarcely offer any hope of happiness. The spotlight in the final tableau is on Angelo, shackled now to Mariana but gazing with longing at the upturned face of Isabella, the girl he really desired. Lucio is forced, under protest, to marry a woman he made pregnant, and restore her honour, whether she wants it or not. And Isabella, the novice nun, shrinks from the offered hand of Duke Vincentio, whom she had taken for a monk and confessor only a few hours before. Being ruler of this city-state, he is hard to refuse, but she is the girl who just wanted to remain a virgin in a convent. Marriage is synonymous with happy endings – isn’t it?

To read more http://www.oxfordprospect.co.uk/OxfordTheatre.htm#Measure_for_Measure_