Royal Shakespeare theatre,Stratford-upon-Avon
Antonio and Bassanio are the revelation in Polly Findlay’s RSC productionThe Globe is currently staging The Merchant of Venice with Jonathan Pryce. Now the RSC fill keep it on. You might reflect this suggested a quest by directors for what makes a scapegoat. Yet Shakespeares meanings are more slippery than that. Rupert Goold’s galvanic casino version, revived at the end of last year, or made this – one of Shakespeare’s most troublesome plays – look like an explosion of capitalism,a forerunner of Enron. Now Polly Findlay’s production seems bent on reminding us that the merchant of the title is not the person with the strongest speeches – not Shylock but Antonio.
Findlay’s staging takes site… where? Not in a mercantile Venice or a (supposedly) anti-mercantile Belmont. Johannes Schützs design – a huge gold wall at the back of a bare stage in front of which a giant silver ball swings like a pendulum – looks like a giant executive toy. It reduces some strong actors to mechanical playthings.
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Source: theguardian.com