The Merchant of Venice – Royal Lyceum Theatre

The Theatre for a New Audience production of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is, of course, not set in Venice. Instead, we are in an American city in the near future, though the play’s fidelity to Shakespeare’s script largely confines this setting to its physical set, designed by Riccardo Hernandez (a brutalist concrete set of steps before two rectangular doors and a circular window), the presence of costume designer Emily Rebholz’ suits and mobile phones and, of course, the Jewish characters being portrayed by Black actors (the link between two different intolerances aided by the fact the play has racist as well as antisemitic portions).

This limits what the play can do to what Shakespeare did with it and, unfortunately, Shakespeare by today’s standards is an antisemite. In Shakespeare’s time, no Jews had been legally present in England for centuries and therefore stereotypes and prejudice were the biggest representation of them available. Of course, what Shakespeare meant and what an audience saw – then and definitely now – are two different things, and Shylock evolved over the years, from a stock Shakespearean villain or repulsive clown, to a man overcome by a desire for revenge or pride from the nineteenth century onwards. But the sword of interpretation cuts both ways, and moments such as Shylock’s famous “do we not bleed?” speech weren’t problematic enough for the Nazis to not make him usable to their own ends. Shylock featured in their propaganda, they broadcast a radio production of The Merchant of Venice in the build-up to the anti-semitic violence of Kristallnacht in 1938 and staged different productions around the Reich and its occupied territories for years afterwards.

Some of the audience may squirm appropriately at the abuse, slurs and spitting, but for some, adding a few images such as a defeated Shylock (John Douglas Thompson) and his daughter Jessica (Danaya Esperanza) – who has now learned that nothing she does can truly make her acceptable to Christian society – reciting Hebrew together in their defeat, may not be enough. Really, the problem with The Merchant of Venice is that it is an Elizabethan comedy that is now seen as having a titular tragedy within it. Shakespeare might have seen it as being about justice, but to us it is about injustice, whether it is Shylock’s using the letter of the law to exact revenge for past ill-treatment, or the Christians proving that no amount of letter-following can help you win against a society that despises you, even when that society is a fake lawyer with no legal experience dressed in drag.

However, this production, directed by Arin Arbus, is not unaware of this, and builds on these elements in many places. There is the afore-mentioned spitting and Hebrew, Portia (Isabel Arraiza) being plainly uncomfortable around the now-Christened Jessica, and the foregrounding of the gay subtext between Antonio and Bassanio and suggestion that Antonio’s quick exit from the play – probably in reality due to Shakespeare’s writing deadline forcing him to wrap up subplots faster than intended – is in fact Portia getting rid of a rival.

The actors effortlessly combine the needs of Elizabethan verse with that of a modern (or slightly sci-fi) American setting, and John Douglas Thompson in the title role brings the vital combination humanity and vengefulness, along with quite a lot of humour, though inevitably the draw of Shylock makes the other characters dimmer by proximity. However, their energy and character touches keep the play skipping along, ably justifying this story’s continued existence and its own addition to an extensive, and often radiant, litany of productions.

The Merchant of Venice is running at the Lyceum until the 15th February. Tickets can be found at: https://lyceum.org.uk/events/the-merchant-of-venice

Reviewer: Oliver Giggins

Reviewed: 22nd January 2025

North West End UK Rating: