I think this ‘read all Shakespeare’ project might slip into 2024 … not sure I am going to make the 2023 deadline and I don’t want to rush through the next ones.
I thought this play was one of the most relevant plays for today and an excellent play for schools in many ways. So many discussion points.

It is about a leader, the Duke, who doesn’t want to be, or be seen to be, an authoritarian so leaves an ill suited, puritanical deputy in charge to sort out the loose morality of the city. But that deputy comes down too hard on some while secretly committing the sins he judges others harshly of. And he acts on those sinful thoughts in the most abominable way. Tell me this doesn’t happen today and I will move to where you live. When the Duke finally returns to observe all from behind a disguise, he becomes the most manipulative horror.

The play shows how powerless women were and how they were either prostitutes, maids (pre marriageable), widows or wives. If none of the above they were ‘nothing then’. It ends in four very uncomfortable marriages or marriage ‘proposals’.

Though it is a horrible topic, I thought this play was gripping, even though the story line was a tiny bit wobbly in places maybe