Raising a quizzical highbrow

I went to the Donmar Warehouse to see Measure for Measure last night.

I knew from the reviews that the production is built around a sort of high-concept #MeToo manoeuvre; the first half is a traditional, if shortened, 17th-century staging before the second half retells the story in 2018 with the gender power dynamics reversed

As I had left the house at six thirty in the morning to drive to Warwickshire for a meeting, come back to work in the SW19 office for the afternoon, and then gone straight to the theatre, I was so jaded I felt I could do without seeing the same story twice and decided to go home in the interval.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man though, in the event I was so gripped by part one that I stayed for the whole thing and thought it was great. I guess this means they must have pulled off what does sound, in theory, like an over-contrived conceit.