RIGHT from schooldays, of all Shakespeare’s plays, I’ve never felt comfortable with ‘A Merchant of Venice’ because of the villainous way Shylock the Jewish moneylender is treated.
Obviously, Brigid Larmour and Tracy-Ann Oberman – who have adapted Shakespeare’s original play into their ‘The Merchant of Venice 1936’ – felt the same – they turn the tables and show the main protagonists as nasty antisemites.
It is as much a re-imagining as it is a reworking – starting by setting it in the East End of London in 1936 where Oswald Mosley is hoping his black-shirted bullies (aka British Union of Fascists) will rise to power like Hitler’s Nazis across the channel.
Picture by Marc Brenner. sBesides writing the adaptation, Larmour also directs with co-writer Oberman as her associate director. Lasting only two hours, it is a fast-moving piece of theatre with lots of period footage and a sound effect and tense musical underscore adding to the atmosphere.
Liz Cooke’s set allows for free-flowing action and her costumes are perfectly complimentary to both the period and the characters.
Shylock the money lender is written as a woman, not of the gender blindness school, but intentionally. In the role Tracy-Ann Oberman plays it for power and dignity, not apology and humility. This in turn upsets the racial apple cart and heightens the abuse Shylock receives. So much so that it is often a hard watch – seeing the so called respectable upper classes call her ‘Jew’ and spit on her at every opportunity. Quite rightly Oberman’s Shylock does not come across as likable, years of persecution have hardened her heart, making her wish to take Antonio’s life understandable if not acceptable.
Picture by Marc Brenner. sGeorgie Fellows makes a splendid Portia, as clever as she is beautiful and a proven darling of the Moseley jackbooted gang, Joseph Millson dominates the stage as a very watchable Antonio and Grainne Dromgoole is a gently charismatic Jessica.
The cavernous auditorium of the REP made some of the dialogue difficult to hear at times which just took the edge off an excellent production – despite this it still got a well-deserved standing ovation from much of the full house.
Trading Venice for London and the 1600s for the 1930s might be a stretch, but it worked for me as did the epilogue of the battle of Cable Street when our nation stood up to fascism in a display of multi-racial strength.
Picture by Marc Brenner. s‘The quality of mercy is not strained’ are words we should remember when tempted to make the unfortunate that travel to us a soft target for all our woes.
The Merchant of Venice runs at the Birmingham Rep until Saturday, April 5. Click here for times, tickets and more information.
