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The Merchant of Venice

★★★★

CLF Art Café

The Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice

CLF Art Cafe

Reviewed – 18th September 2019

★★★★

 

“a funny, urgent and intense production, full of action and suspense”

 

I can’t think that there is any play so contentious and yet so regularly performed as The Merchant of Venice. Classed as a comedy and with all the Shakespearian trappings of one, it’s very difficult to understand what message we are meant to take away. Do we sympathise with the Jew (as he is so often affectionally referred to), or do we believe him to be unfeeling and unworthy of our sympathies? In short, do we consider Shylock’s humiliating downfall a happy ending, or a tragedy?

To The Elephant’s production seeks to explore the incredibly difficult conversations around racism, sexism and money as power. But regardless of their intentions, so long as the play is left unabridged (as it is), these questions can only be explored so much from a modern perspective. Instead I’m left feeling very uneasy when at the moment Shylock is stripped of his dignity along with all his worldly possessions, we are tittering at the mocking remarks made by Gratiano (Joseph Samimi) at Shylock’s expense.

The story, for those who didn’t have to study it a billion times at school, is that of Antonio (Chris Royle), an honourable and well-liked merchant, who finds himself in a financial bind and so seeks out Shylock the money lender (Atilla Akinci). Antonio and his Christian friends all share a deep disgust for Jews in general and Shylock in particular, and the feeling is reciprocated. On that basis, they strike a bizarre and bloody deal that should Antonio not come good on his loan repayment, Shylock may quite literally take “a pound of flesh”.

Under Kate Littlewood’s direction, the cast does well to inject pace and bite in to the script – an oft difficult task with ye olde Shakespeare. The subplot of Portia (Molly Moody), for example, seeking a suitor via her late father’s devising is the sort of silly scene, steeped in predictability and seventeenth-century word play, that could easily lull the audience to sleep, but Moody and Leda Douglas (playing Nerissa, her lady-in-waiting) are an excellent comedy duo, sharing knowing looks and eye-rolls whilst playing delightful hosts to the most absurd characters.

Royle’s Antonio is humble but charming; both Samini and Brian Chandrabose play Antonio’s friends, but find their comic footing in their doubled roles as Portia’s potential suitors; Sam Perry’s Lancelot Gobbo is obsequious and untrustworthy; Claire Bowman commands respect as Bassanio, and Susie Kimnell’s Solano is a loyal thug.

But Atilla Akinci’s Shylock steals the show, expressing with painful conviction the uncomfortable truths of his character. Whilst the script appears to conclude that he does indeed get his just desserts, Akinci’s performance does as much to tell us otherwise. He is certainly bitter and petty, but he is made so by his persecutors.

The design (Charlotte Henery) is simple, with no real scenery and few props, but the modern costumes set the scene aplenty, and the change of location to the theatre’s bar for the final courtroom scene gives the impression of the audience as a kind of mob, to great effect. We’re gasping and laughing as a paying chorus.

There is no doubt that Littlewood has succeeded in creating a funny, urgent and intense production, full of action and suspense. The only question lies in whether it’s time to lop off the ‘happy ending’ and allow these characters their complexities – both charming and hateful; honourable and ignoble – instead of holding on to a conclusion that strips them of their moral quandaries and leaves a modern audience feeling uneasy and confused.

 

Reviewed by Miriam Sallon

Photography by Liviu Jipescu

 


The Merchant of Venice

 CLF Art Cafe until 28th September

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
Side Show | ★★★½ | October 2018

 

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Garry
★★★

White Bear Theatre

Garry

Garry

White Bear Theatre

Reviewed – 6th June 2019

★★★

 

“whilst the execution isn’t quite as slick as it could be, Watts has done well in discovering a long-discarded play which speaks volumes to a modern audience”

 

Director Graham Watts’ mission is commendable: he is seeking out the works of women playwrights that have never seen the light of day; not lost works, but rather those plays that were never even found. And in ‘Garry’, written way back in 1954, he has discovered a story with plenty of meat for a twenty-first century audience.

Wilma (Phebe Alys), a doting newlywed, is so completely devoted to her husband Garry (Thomas Martin) that she fails to see past what he tells her, to who he truly is. This is due in large part to the fact that he doesn’t know either. Decades ahead of her time, Sophie Treadwell contemplates the psychological trauma caused by believing homosexuality to be “dirty”, and the potentially lethal repercussions of denying who you are and what you want. Peggy (Claire Bowman), Garry’s sister, adds another interesting component as a happy prostitute, considering her work as a means to sating her own appetite.

Unfortunately, whilst the content of the play has some interesting elements, it’s hard to suspend disbelief owing to the obvious immense concentration required by most of the cast to hold on to their American accents. Phebe Alys is an exception however, consistent in both her sweet southern cadence and her commitment to her character’s intense vulnerability. She lays it on a little thick in parts, but it suits the slightly over-dramatic style of the era.

The soundtrack (Stuart Bowditch) acts as more of a prop, consisting mostly of whatever radio channel the characters tune in to, that is until the closing scene. The lights come down to a hopeful piano sonata as Alys and Matthew Wellard (playing Dave Andrews, a journalist and interested party) look on dreamily over an imaginary horizon, tying everything up in to a neat little ending as though to say, everything’s going to be alright now. Not to give the game away too much, but I’m not sure that’s true… I mean, someone was murdered, and someone else was waving a gun around threatening to kill a stranger only a moment before.

But whilst the execution isn’t quite as slick as it could be, Watts has done well in discovering a long-discarded play which speaks volumes to a modern audience. Perhaps this is the beginning of a Sophie Treadwell revival; I look forward to seeing what other exciting works her peers didn’t appreciate.

 

Reviewed by Miriam Sallon

Photography by Ali Wright

 


Garry

White Bear Theatre until 22nd June

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
Northanger Avenue | ★★★★ | March 2018
Grimm’s Fairy Tales | ★★ | April 2018
Lovebites | ★★★ | April 2018
The Old Room | ★★ | April 2018
The Unnatural Tragedy | ★★★★★ | July 2018
Eros | ★★ | August 2018
Schrodinger’s Dog | ★★★★ | November 2018
Franz Kafka – Apparatus | ★★★ | January 2019
The Project | ★★★ | March 2019
Swimming | ★★★★ | April 2019

 

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