Duke Vincentio wants to dare an experiment.
In his sphere of influence - let's just call it, like Shakespeare, "Wien" - the same strict moral laws and rules of decency apply on paper as elsewhere.
However, hardly anyone gives a damn here, prostitution flourishes and sex before marriage, including the resulting (and thus actually illegal) offspring, is the order of the day.
Surprisingly, the duke seems to leave and hands over his scepter to the strict Angelo, who immediately starts to put all possible stops to the dissolute fun society.
Tough luck for Claudio, who is immediately sent to death row because his almost-but-not-yet bride Julia is expecting his child.
His sister Isabella, almost-but-not-quite-a-nun, is now to convince Angelo to pardon her brother. Entranced by her chaste morals (and only those?), he makes her the most immoral offer imaginable: If she sleeps with him, her brother shall live. An offer she cannot accept, even for the sake of her brother's life.
Thankfully, the Duke - well disguised still on the move in Vienna - has a watchful eye on his own and a cunning plan that not only - Spoiler Alert! - Claudio's life, but also brings Angelo to his shamefully abandoned ex-fiancée and gives Isabella a marriage proposal.
A lesson between morality and laissez-faire, a comedy as an indictment of double standards that, always balancing on the cliff to death, never forgets how hard it is to do the right thing - just when it seems so easy.
Cast
Director Jan Philipp Gloger
Set Franziska Bornkamm
Costumes Karin Jud
Music Kostia Rapoport
Dramaturgy Sascha Kölzow
Vincentio (Duke) Rainer Kühn
Angelo (governor) Janning Kahnert
Lucio (a bon vivant) Michael Birnbaum
Claudio (a young nobleman) Maximilian Pulst
Isabella (Claudio's sister) Karoline Reinke
Madame Overdone (a matchmaker) / Mariana (Angelo's fiancée) Sybille Weiser
a guardian / a friar Tobias Lutze
Text source and more information about the event: http://www.staatstheater-wiesbaden.de/programm/spielplan/mass-fuer-mass-2016-2017/3847/
