The Public Theater

Billy Crudup and Sanaa Lathan made their New York Shakespeare Festival debuts in this production.

Duke Vincentio, weary of ruling over an immoral city, goes away and leaves Vienna under the control of pious Angelo, who he know will enforce the laws. Claudio is arrested for impregnating his fiancé Julietta before marriage, and Angelo sentences him to death to set an example. Claudio’s sister Isabella, who is about to take her vows as a nun, pleads with Angelo for leniency, but he is overtaken by lust and agrees to revoke her brother’s sentence only if she will sleep with him. Isabella refuses, expecting her brother to understand her choice, but Claudio begs her to reconsider. She does not. Duke Vincentio, disguised as a friar hearing confession at the prison, overhears the conversation between brother and sister and concocts a plan to save him. He introduces Isabella to Mariana, Angelo’s former fiancé, and arranges for Mariana disguise herself as Isabella and spend the night with Angelo. He also contrives to have Claudio’s execution stayed and the head of a man who has died of fever delivered to Angelo instead. The Duke then removes his disguise and “returns” to Vienna. Isabella publicly tells him the tale of her blackmail and Mariana and the Duke reveal the parts they played. The Duke commands that Angelo marry Mariana and Claudio be released and reunited with his fiancé, and then he asks Isabella to be his wife.