At lights up in Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s immersive, vibrant “Measure for Measure,” we’re in a raucous, glamorously seedy Havana nightclub. The place is La Trucha, a tropical stand-in for the Vienna, Italy, bawdy house that plays a crucial role in Shakespeare’s drama about sexual coercion, hypocrisy and tyranny. The time is 1952, the year Fidel Castro would come to power on the island nation roughly 90 miles southwest of the tip of Florida.
In moving the so-called “problem play” from Italy to Cuba, director Henry Godinez highlights its troubling power. Arrive early: He sets the stage before the 100-minute, intermission-less show proper starts with a 10-minute pre-show floor show.
