The Richmond Shakespeare Society turns its very capable hands to one of Shakespeare's most disturbing and complex plays, The Merchant of Venice. Alan Long enjoyed a confident performance at Mary Wallace Theatre until Sat Nov 12
This tale of Shylock’s pursuit of murderous revenge and of his own ultimate humiliation and downfall, is difficult for present day audiences to reconcile with the tone of the original title of the play: The Comical History of the Merchant of Venice. Now of course, racial and ethnic identities are protected if not sacrosanct yet in that period many, including Jews, were casually despised and persecuted without any consciousness of injustice.
Antonio, a Christian, is a merchant in Venice. Shylock is a Jew who lends money for interest. Antonio borrows money from Shylock to finance his friend, Bassanio’s courtship of Portia, a wealthy heiress. Shylock has reason to hate Antonio who has many times insulted and assaulted him because he is a Jew and a money-lender.
However, he agrees to provide the loan, offering to forego interest and proposing as ‘a merry sport’ – that if Antonio fails to repay by the due date, he should forfeit a pound of his own flesh, cut from whichever part of his body Shylock pleases. Antonio accepts the offer and sees it as evidence that ‘The Hebrew will turn Christian: he grows kind’. But it transpires that Shylock is, or comes to be, in deadly earnest.
There are many genuinely funny moments and several love stories going on throughout, but the most compelling theme and the one that makes the sharpest impact in this production, is the racial tension around Shylock. In his determination to make Antonio pay with his life for past wrongs, he pushes his perceived advantage in law to the limit, overreaches himself and is himself stripped of all that he had to begin with: his family, home, fortune and place in the community.
Craig Cameron-Fisher as Shylock, gives a performance of great conviction, power and emotional range: bitter mockery of Antonio’s request for a loan from one whom he had in the past called a dog and spat upon – ‘Hath a dog money?’, then wheedling Antonio into accepting the loan, then his implacable demands for the agreed pound of flesh and finally, weeping and wailing, prostrate on the floor of the court, accepting defeat and the loss of his possessions. There is pity and even some sympathy for Shylock’s predicament, because although the plot against Antonio is inexcusable, the anger and resentment from which it springs are utterly believable and understandable.
The court scene is the dramatic climax of the play and the atmosphere is hectic, threatening and dangerous – Simon Bartlett as Antonio, gives a remarkable display of quivering terror when confronted by Shylock’s sharpened knife and there is a baying mob at the door shouting insults at ‘the Jew’. Even so, there are lighter moments: Dionne King as Portia/a doctor of law and Nerissa her lady in waiting/clerk to the lawyer, are witty and amusing in their elucidation of the ‘pound of flesh’ loan agreement and in getting their unsuspecting husbands to part with their wedding rings.
At the end of the play a happy future is indicated for most of the characters, but not of course for Shylock and not for his daughter either. Jessica is shown mute and masked, staring out. Having deserted and betrayed her father, stolen his property and abandoned his religion, she appears bereft and disabled by guilt.
This is a strong and confident performance of a complex, multi-layered play, capable of infinite variations of emphasis and interpretation, which continues, as it has for hundreds of years, to provoke thought and discussion. Highly and enthusiastically recommended.
Merchant of Venice by Richmond Shakespeare Society is on at Mary Wallace Theatre until Saturday November 12.
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