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Director
Julia Pascal
Designer
Sam
Boardman-Jacobs
Musical
Director
Tony Brown
Cast
includes
Sarah
Ruth Posner
Antonio/
Lancelot Gobbo
Roderick
Smith
Bassanio
Jonathan
Woolf
Lorenzo/Tubal
Timothy Dewberry
Shylock
Paul Herzberg
Portia
Miranda Pleasence
Nerissa
Stephanie
Brittain
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Arcola Theatre
11
Sept - 13 Oct 2007
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Julia
Pascal says that adapting
and directing The Merchant
of Venice is the culmination
of years of thinking "around"
Shylock, Jews and England.
The conceit is that we are
watching the dress rehearsal
of a production of the play
in the Ghetto in Venice itself,
and that an elderly Jewish
lady, Sarah (Ruth Posner),
who is visiting Venice, gets
caught up in it. Sarah, like
Ruth Posner herself, escaped
from the Warsaw Ghetto and
survived the war by posing
as a Catholic. Not surprisingly,
she finds The Merchant of
Venice a hard play to watch
and some of the scenes, including
those where Shylock's flighty
daughter Jessica runs off
with Lorenzo, agonising. Once
the "rehearsal"
begins, we get most of the
play, with occasional memories
or commentary from Sarah interspersed
along the way.
Julia Pascal intends this
to heighten our questioning
of the nature of this difficult
play, about which it is impossible
to come to a firm conclusion:
is it racist, or anti-Semitic,
or does it show us these things
in others? It is largely a
question of taste whether
the device adds much to what
is already there (and for
me the bond scene and the
trial scene were far more
powerful than anything in
the "wrapper") but
there can be no doubting the
seriousness of intent. And
the actors seem entirely committed
to her vision. Most of the
cast are young, recent drama
school graduates or even still
studying, many in their first
professional roles. They are
energetic, talented and entertaining,
and also versatile. Bassanio
plays the clarinet, there
is a good trumpeter, two excellent
sopranos, lots of group choral
work and drumming. The music
is generally extremely effective,
most of all as it blossoms
in Lorenzo's beautiful speech
"How sweet the moonlight
sleeps upon this bank! /Here
will we sit, and let the sounds
of music/ creep in our ears"
often overlooked but here
made to be quite the rival
of "If music be the food
of love...".
There is lots of charging
around and throwing each other
about in the middle of the
Arcola's slightly awkward
space and round its central
pillar. The impression of
an eager student cooperative
is leavened by the more experienced
actors. In addition to Ruth
Posner (78 according to the
programme, but game, alert
and agile), there is Roderick
Smith as a suave and resolute
Antonio, more than somewhat
attracted to Bassanio and
other young turks on the Rialto,
and discomfitingly vengeful
at the end. Smith doubles
as Lancelot Gobbo, with a
brummie accent and pork-pie
hat; and, in keeping with
the company ethos, also plays
the mandolin. He delivers
the verse beautifully and
naturally. And then there
is Paul Herzberg as Shylock.
He is most impressive, a Jewish
paterfamilias, a businessman
who bandies words with Antonio
and keeps his dignity, not
at all a fawning or intimidated
Jew. He says Kaddish when
Jessica absconds. He seems
to enter into the deal with
Antonio on a whim, and as
if to dispel the idea that
he is only interested in profit;
but in the trial scene, he
convinces us that he has a
good case, in Venice's interest,
for sticking to the contract.
He speaks the famous lines
about Jews bleeding when pricked
and responding to the same
cures for illnesses as Christians
most impressively; and the
forced conversion at the end
is horrible to see. His is
a very powerful and intelligent
performance, and rightly,
he stays aloof from the company
at all times in his suit,
tie and kippah.
In this production, oddly,
the women seem more incidental
than the men, so Portia does
not appear to be a central
character. She is well played
though by Miranda Pleasence,
a confident heiress and a
smart-aleck cross-dressing
lawyer. Stephanie Brittain,
one of the newcomers, is an
excellent foil to her as Nerissa,
beautifully expressing her
delight when Bassanio opens
the right casket (the gold
one having been wrenched from
his hands by Portia). But
that all seems such frippery
alongside the central theme.
The energy and the commitment
of the young troupe, and the
seriously good acting of the
more experienced members make
this a powerful, affecting
and oddly uplifting evening.
Recommended.
James Flynn |
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