Roxana Silbert’s exciting revival of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure for the Royal Shakespeare Company brings magic to the Swan Theatre stage along with a lot of highly-charged sexual imagery.

The director cleverly pulls out the strong themes of good against evil, virtue and vice by setting her production in a Vienna of S&M with bondage-style costumes, ropes, whips, masks and leather corsets.

As the play opens the clever design (Garance Marneur) exaggerates these themes, as do Chahine Yavroyan's dramatic lighting effects which complement by offering stark contrasts.

But the main magic of the production aside from the strong imagery and symbolic costume is excellent performances by all and in particular the lead roles.

Raymond Coulthard’s Duke Vincentio is almost created from the text—a fantastical Duke who handsomely performs magic—not only in the plot itself but literally with coins being pulled from behind ears and letters appearing from nowhere.

His sophisticated character still has that hint of “darkness”, not only apparent in his apparel, but in his actions as he manipulates the final justice, which closely falls into a happy ever after in this show.

There is of course, as was Shakespeare’s intent, a strong balance and so we see a saintly-clad Isabella, beautifully played by Jodie McNee, and the reliable Escalus (Geoffrey Beevers) donning a tweed jacket as sign of his tested virtue.

Jamie Ballard brings a thoughtful Angelo to the stage, and in his tight leather corset, gives a strong performance as his passion finally overcomes his reason.

Coupled with this Paul Chahidi’s clown-like pimp Lucio gives an extra dimension to make this a fun production, alongside the colourful performance of Annette Mc-Laughlin’s Mistress Overdone.

Additional effects such as human lampshades and a live muse as a water fountain add quirkiness to this imaginative and well-executed production.

Ms Silbert’s fresh approach brings Shakespeare’s line, “some rise by sin,” into sharp focus and her use of contemporary sexual images takes this play to a new level, knocking the spots off other recent stagings of this play.