Measure for Measure

Throughout this play, pregnancy is a recurring theme. Most notably, one of the secondary leads, Claudio, is sentenced to death because he has knocked up, Julietta. They both want to get married, but due to some technicality that I still can’t figure out, the knot remains untied. Unfortunately the local Duke is taking some time off and appoints in his place a real dick named Angelo. The Big-A decides that unsanctioned fornication must be made an example of and decides to execute Claudio. Isabella, Claudio’s sister, pleads with Angelo for her brother’s life. Well, get this – Isabella is (wait for it) a really hot nun. Angelo takes one look at her and nearly splits his cod-piece. He tries to get her to agree to shag him in return for clemency for her brother – but I digress. To go with the pregnancy theme I was going to show a quail’s egg – small, beautifully speckled, and conveniently sitting in my fridge. I tried, but I just couldn’t make it work. Then, looking back through my notes (I did actually keep notes as I was watching), I found these lines of the condemned Claudio: ‘Death is a fearful thing …. to die, and go we know not where.’ These are surely some of Shakespeare’s most honest and chilling words. With them, the image I found best suited to connote this moment of the play was … nothing.