The Merchant of Venice

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Just got back from seeing TMOV at Stratford. Patrick Stewart was Shylock and was very good - but the big prize went to the director who managed to create something completely original from the play.

The setting was updated to include Vegas style casinos. Launcelot Gobbo was turned into an Elvis impersonator - complete with songs! The casket choosing scenes were performed as a game show. All very original but that kind of thing is pretty usual these days. What impressed me so much was the way that the personalities of many of the characters were completely changed from their usual portrayals without a single word of the script being touched (apart from 3 million dollars replacing 3,000 ducats!) Portia and her maid, Nerissa, were ditzy southern belles. Shylock's daughter, Jessica, was played geeky and awkward.

Portia's trial scene was the most extreme example. in every other version I have seen on stage or screen, Portia is shown as wily and self-assured throughout her masquerade as a male lawyer, craftily offering Shylock ways to show mercy before seeming to give in to his demands for his pound of flesh, only to pull the rug from under him by demanding that he spill not one drop of blood in the process. In this version, however, Her appearance at the trial is shown as impulsive, her acquiescence to Shylock borne of resigned inevitability and her table-turning a last minute brainwave. She was, in short, winging it throughout the scene - a novel twist.

The anti-semitism of the play was very much to the fore - going as far as Patrick Stewart being spat upon when leaving court. Gawd would have loved it! From a 21st century standpoint this is rather disturbing - especially when played for laughs - but it's a big part of Shakespeare's play and deserves to be shown in all of its detail.

All in all, a very enjoyable trip.

[DRSB]

Thanks for sharing!

I like it when classics are staged amidst modern scenery and given a modern twist!

[Rum]

Thanks for sharing!

I like it when classics are staged amidst modern scenery and given a modern twist!

Not so keen myself but each to their own.

Before we moved up here 5 years ago we lived 15 miles from Stratford-upon-Avon and we were lucky enough to see the RSC a good number of times. On one memorable occasion whilst in the middle of Macbeth - one of his bleaker offerings, Lady Macbeth was standing in from of a long row of nobles sitting at a long table. She was in a bright red dress and the rest were in black and grey (the theme of this production). She made her speech to the assembled knights and then spun on the spot to face the audience at which point her strapless dress top collapsed leaving her boobs exposed to the audience - clearly not deliberately!

The speech only had a few seconds to go and to her credit she carried on until it was finished with not so much as a stumble or a pause.

[DRSB]

Thanks for sharing!

I like it when classics are staged amidst modern scenery and given a modern twist!

Not so keen myself but each to their own.

Before we moved up here 5 years ago we lived 15 miles from Stratford-upon-Avon and we were lucky enough to see the RSC a good number of times. On one memorable occasion whilst in the middle of Macbeth - one of his bleaker offerings, Lady Macbeth was standing in from of a long row of nobles sitting at a long table. She was in a bright red dress and the rest were in black and grey (the theme of this production). She made her speech to the assembled knights and then spun on the spot to face the audience at which point her strapless dress top collapsed leaving her boobs exposed to the audience - clearly not deliberately!

The speech only had a few seconds to go and to her credit she carried on until it was finished with not so much as a stumble or a pause.

I also like remakes or re-interpretations or additional twists are added, such as in Edward Bond's "Lear".

[klr]

Just got back from seeing TMOV at Stratford. Patrick Stewart was Shylock and was very good - but the big prize went to the director who managed to create something completely original from the play.

The setting was updated to include Vegas style casinos. Launcelot Gobbo was turned into an Elvis impersonator - complete with songs! The casket choosing scenes were performed as a game show. All very original but that kind of thing is pretty usual these days. What impressed me so much was the way that the personalities of many of the characters were completely changed from their usual portrayals without a single word of the script being touched (apart from 3 million dollars replacing 3,000 ducats!) Portia and her maid, Nerissa, were ditzy southern belles. Shylock's daughter, Jessica, was played geeky and awkward.

Portia's trial scene was the most extreme example. in every other version I have seen on stage or screen, Portia is shown as wily and self-assured throughout her masquerade as a male lawyer, craftily offering Shylock ways to show mercy before seeming to give in to his demands for his pound of flesh, only to pull the rug from under him by demanding that he spill not one drop of blood in the process. In this version, however, Her appearance at the trial is shown as impulsive, her acquiescence to Shylock borne of resigned inevitability and her table-turning a last minute brainwave. She was, in short, winging it throughout the scene - a novel twist.

The anti-semitism of the play was very much to the fore - going as far as Patrick Stewart being spat upon when leaving court. Gawd would have loved it! From a 21st century standpoint this is rather disturbing - especially when played for laughs - but it's a big part of Shakespeare's play and deserves to be shown in all of its detail.

All in all, a very enjoyable trip.

I can''t imagine Launcelot singing "Viva Las Vegas!"

Portia as a Southern Belle ... well I do declare!

As for Portia winging it during the trial: I've always thought myself that Shakespeare made it ambiguous. She might have had the trap planned all along, she might not.

Anyway, good stuff.

[DRSB]

I just now saw "Much Ado About Nothing" in Theatre "Pushkin" in Moscow. A totally delightful modern performance with the soldiers dressed in rangers' clothes and a live teenager band interjecting like a Greek choir with trip-hoppy songs. Leonardo was for most of the play drunk, not sure this was in the script, but as I said, an overall delightful thing!

[Ronja]

Thanks, XC & Co. for sharing. MiM and I saw an extremely minimalistic Hamlet (almost no props, under open sky) in the courtyard of Conwy Castle in 1997, on our honeymoon. One of the most intriguing performances ever - if only I had been able to completely forget the thought "What will they do if it starts raining?" Thankfully, the weather stayed fine.