The Merchant of Venice begins with Bassanio, played by James McGregor, wants to make the beautiful and very rich Portia, played by Rebecca Moore, fall in love with him, but unfortunately he does not have the proper funds. On the other hand Antonio, played by Philip Mansfield, is a Christian merchant that everyone loves and who is known for lending money without interest given his good heart and propensity towards charity.
Therefore, it is only logical that Bassanio turns to Antonio for help, but unfortunately Antonio’s funds are all on merchant shops and does not have anything to actually give him. However, Antonio does tell Bassanio that if he can find someone to offer him a loan than Antonio will sign on as the guarantor. It turns out though that the lender Bassanio finds is Shylock played by Saul Reichlin, a Jewish lender that is mad that Antonio has undercut his profits and hates the fact that Antonio is anti-Semantic.
Shylock also resents him in general and in an attempt to get revenge and a bit of satisfaction he makes it a point to hold Antonio as the guarantor if Bassanio is unable to repay his debt within a timely manner. Unfortunately soon Antonio’s ships end up missing at sea and Shylock sees his chance.
It can be hard to get into this loopy comedy from William Shakespeare when you read it, but it is even harder to actually perform the complex play that has many different harsh themes. In fact, the play can quickly be summed up as an essay on revenge and racism instead of a comedy, making you wonder if Shakespeare knew the principle or irony or sarcasm.
Despite this fact David Weinberg attempted to make the play a bit modern by bringing modern dress to the play at its showing at the Rose Theatre. Simply changing the clothes does not really make the play modern however because the text itself does not really transcend time.
They do toss in a tablet computer and some city suits that are tailored by Alessia Alba, but overall this is not enough to convince viewers that the play actually works in modern times. This is not the only flaw, as Weinberg also tends to really play up all of the comic features of the script making the comedy a bit too much for the serious play and a disruption in the flow of the film.
The one thing that Weinberg does manage to do is tease the tension out of the play and the characters, allowing for some of the wittier statements of the play to come through wonderfully allowing for the right amount of space in the performance for the audience to catch the small subtleness of the play.
Also a tribute to the respective actors and actresses is the fact that their performances are very strong. For instance, Mansfield is excellent as Antonio as he starts out smug but slowly becomes remorseful and broken at the same time that Reichlin slowly becomes a bit more animated.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Related posts:
- Driving Miss Daisy James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave will be returning to...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.