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The Merchant of Venice

Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

Five stars

 

Money talks in the New York based Theatre For A New Audience company’s searingly contemporary take on Shakespeare’s trickiest play, visiting Edinburgh as part of the company’s Shakespeare Exchange initiative with the Lyceum. The sharp suited world of high class hustlers where director Arin Arbus sets out her store may stick to the script in terms of its original location, but as the play’s stakes are ramped up in a commercially driven world, it feels a lot closer to the city the company call home.

 

As city slicker Antonio cuts a fateful deal with Jewish loan shark Shylock to bankroll his best bro Bassanio’s big deal on the high seas, the hatred is mutual. Business is business, however, and as long as the cash is on the table and debts are paid, no one gets hurt. Meanwhile, wealthy heiress Portia eases the boredom of being loaded by putting her love on the market as she auditions a role-call of international idiots before Bassanio hits the jackpot. And when Shylock’s daughter Jessica runs off with Lorenzo, things turn very ugly indeed.

 

Revenge, rapacious capitalism and institutionalised racism are all in the mix in Arbus’ multi-cultural hub of everyday greed and betrayal. Having Shylock played by Black actor John Douglas Thompson gives things an extra edge beyond Antonio and co’s already ingrained prejudice, with a performance of multi-layered brilliance. Thompson marks Shylock’s self inflicted tragedy with a deep-set pathos that sees him crumple before our eyes. He was so close to beating the system and getting his pound of flesh in court, but as one of the establishment running the show, Portia was never going to let him win.

 

Few if any characters come out looking good in Arbus’ production, played on the slate grey steps of Riccardo Hernandez’s monumental set like an HBO epic. Alfredo Narciso and Ariel Shafir’s Antonio and Bassanio are in a lot more than each other’s pockets here, as each transaction comes loaded with an erotic charge. But it is Isabel Arraiza’s Portia and her sidekick Nerissa, played by Shirine Babb, who really call the shots. This is the case both at home and in the courtroom, where a lifetime of terminal mistrust begins. As for Danaya Esperanza’s Jessica, she may have thought she’d made it to high society, but to Lorenzo she’s just exotic arm-candy to impress the boys with in their over privileged domain.

 

There are two brief sets of words here not written by Shakespeare. One is spoken by Antonio as Shylock wields a knife to his chest. The other is incanted by Shylock and Jessica, cross-generational outsiders seeking salvation in a tribalistic society. Both sets of words are prayers. They may be from different faiths, but as the wheeler-dealers in the play know to their cost, in business you can only live off them for so long in this stunning realisation of a classic play for modern times.


The Herald, January 24th 2025

 

ends

 

 

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