August 1980. The Soviet authorities are preparing Moscow for the Olympic Games and expelling unreliable citizens from the city. One such citizen is the talented cellist Arseny Chaika, who ends up in the village of Protasovo with his rabbit. Meanwhile, in Moscow, foreign journalist William Smith is looking for him for an interview.

Satirical, shocking and radically stripped back, Measure for Measure from Britain’s Cheek by Jowl and Moscow’s Pushkin Theatre is a gripping, compelling production of one of Shakespeare’s most controversial plays. Indulgent Duke Vincentio leaves Vienna in the hands of his puritanical deputy Angelo, to secretly observe the virtues and vices of his unruly state. When the saintly Isabella pleads with Angelo to release her brother Claudio, sentenced to death for fornication, he agrees on one condition: that Isabella sacrifice her virginity to him.