Taking the Measure of One's Suppositions, One Step at a Time
Abstract
One Step at a Time Like This, a Melbourne-based theater company, developed an astonishing interactive meditation on Measure for Measure for Chicago Shakespeare Theater's World's Stage Series in the fall of 2014. An immersive, ambulatory theater experience, Since I Suppose pushed audience participants to examine the complex sexual politics of Shakespeare's play, the city of Chicago, and their own personal moral identities through a variety of different lenses. Since I Suppose challenged its audience participants' assumptions of imperviousness to the corruption of a political aspirant like Angelo, the weakness of a political figure such as the Duke, or the myriad temptations of a sprawling city. In the manner of the best productions, One Step at a Time Like This produced an adaptation of Measure for Measure that left audience members with not merely a different understanding of the play, but of themselves. Diving deeply into a corrupt world of substitute political leaders, substitute sexual partners, and substitute decapitated criminals, Since I Suppose left its audience to contemplate the profundity of the most basic question of identity: Who are you?