One of the questions often asked about Measure for Measure is this: why is it set in Vienna? It needn't trouble us, however, in this production, which swops Dundee for the Austrian capital, and Dundonian for Shakespearean English, at least in the crowd scenes.
It's a bold move by Ron Whyte and Peter Arnott, adapting the play, and one clearly aimed at translating the specifics Shakespeare was writing about - a harsh clampdown on sleaze in the seamier areas of the city - into a recognisable context. So street scenes are transformed into a lurid, red-light world of pimps and prostitutes, where "Mistress Overdone" advertises her "Orgasmic Delights" and Shaggy's Mr Lover Lover is a theme tune, played loud.
These scenes are balanced by more formal sequences, performed in the original text, exploring the vexed relationship between power, justice and sex. Emily Winter's Isabella (the novice nun who can only save her brother from death by losing her virtue) is perfectly pitched, her dilemma plausible.
Where the production falls down, however, is in the relationship between the two moods. The Rep's community company play the crowd scenes and, in the first hour, these are marred by muffled sound and an awkwardness that flattens proceedings, as does some of the phrasing ("You either go with the flow or you drown in your own shite").
The juxtaposition of Elizabethan language ("Angelo, whose blood is very snow-broth") and modern ("the supermarket has an offer on the noo") should feel fresh and reinvigorate a play whose issues are hardly irrelevant today.
Instead, the result is a lacklustre production, not as engaging as it should be, despite some glimmers of potential: Paul Clarke, for example, is especially impressive as Pompey. These glimmers are outnumbered by weaker moments. The grip of this world of sleaze - peopled by those in authority as much as by those on the streets - never feels viciously real enough.
· Until March 30. Box office: 01382 223530.
