We're currently fundraising for our premier production- a workshop of A Pond as Deep as Hell. This script is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure and will be presented at TPS's Center Theatre for public audiences on August 26th, 27th, and 28th of this year. This adaptation recontextualizes the original play- a narrative that centers on men's experiences with female trauma- to center the story instead on the women in question. The goal we've included here is the amount needed to pay our cast and creatives for their time, energy, and artistry.

ID: A poster for A Pond As Deep As Hell. It is a photograph of a large hand holding a white rosary and covering the mouth of the actor playing Isabel. The actor is looking up and to the right and crying. The image is in black and white. Image text: A Pond as Deep as Hell, adapted from Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. Powered by Shunpike.

What makes Measure for Measure a “problem play?” In the modern context of a “Problem Play” specifically regarding Shakespeare, this means the play is tonally inconsistent or ambiguous. In the context of the original coining of “Shakespearean Problem Play” by F. S. Boas, this term instead refers to a play that addresses a social or moral quandary that is not resolved, leaving us without a concrete sense of comic or tragic ending. It is not a play that is a problem. It is a play about a problem. Social circumstances have changed drastically in many ways since 1604, but there is still a social problem at the heart of Measure for Measure that is incredibly relevant. Our adaptation has focused on this element of the play, recentering the narrative to now follow Isabel’s navigation of a problem that “feels” modern. Instead of being surprisingly modern however, perhaps the issue at the heart of the play is rather tragically timeless.

A Pond as Deep as Hell is not intended to be a more realistic version of Measure for Measure. Rather, it is something akin to a justice fantasy retelling of the 400-year-old “problem play” in which the villain is held accountable for his actions and the victims receive appropriate recompense. We have strengthened all of the female characters, giving them more text and stage time, to aid in telling this story of the women’s journeys. The purpose of A Pond as Deep as Hell is to provide, for its femme-identifying audience, a catharsis in seeing these women band together and take down a man who seemingly holds all the cards; and for its male-identifying audience, an opportunity to question and reconsider what we do or don’t view as “abusive” behaviors and help reframe the way many men identify violence against women.