A pound of flesh, questions on Christianity, Romance, money, and debatable anti-Semitic and homoerotic undertones. The Merchant of Venice has them all. The most performed play in Nazi-Germany; The Merchant has always been a play which requires care in its performance. An odd choice for 2000’s School Shakespeare Project? Possibly. But also one which was treated with respect and executed with a level of quality that was sadly lacking with last year's offering. It was also a very welcome return (finally) to the newly reopened Theatr y werin, now refurbished an ready for the production’s revolving set.
Richard Cheshire has made a couple of non-scripted additions to this production, but only in the form of stage images, which serve to emphasize the feel of the piece. For example the plays opening image is that of Shylock and his workers scrambling like wild dogs for goods. Money is central to the play from the star. But the anti-Semitism, which secondary school English teachers preach about, thankfully is not. Much as though it is important to realise that Jews were certainly not always welcome in Shakespeare’s England, the concept as piloted in 1940s Germany certainly did not exist. Shylock is an outsider because of his religion and principles, but this play was never designed as anti Jew propaganda.
One element of the twentieth century world has however infiltrated this production. Certainly from the posters which advertise the production, and mirrored by the bleak set, with its railings being used to separate groups of society, parallels between the world created here, and that of Germany during the depression are visible..
As a company there was very little in the way of weak links here, and a number of strong performances were turned in; notably from Nathan Guy (who’s bewildered Lancelot Gobbo got to grips with making a Shakespearian clown funny) Rob Kavanagh (Who gave Shylock just the right balance between realism and Tevye style Jewish Stereotype) and we feel a special award should go out to Simon Thomas for looking the most like THE MASK in a serious play for his highly comic execution of Gratiano.
My only slight criticism would be of a weakness in Portia’s other suitors, as not being quite as strong or exploring the comic potential of two characters who more than likely were put into the play by Shakespeare as small comic cameos. The inclusion of very dramatic readings of what are in essence very witty riddles for failing suitors, did appear a little melodramatic and were the only minor flaw in an otherwise excellent production.
All in all this was a fantastically well-produced and thought out production. We give it 4 Mach’s out of five.
