PresentReviewers Latest Reviews
This truly was a Merchant was not to be missed. TFANA's production of The Merchant of Venice at the Swan in Stratford ignited the audience. We were pulled into Shakespeare's dark exploration of religious and racial prejudice and exploration of justice and mercy in a mercantile society, with the lure of love and libido, irony, wit, dupe and deception: and all transformed into modernity without losing any of Shakespeare's richness of word and nuance. It worked fabulously!
Shakespeare set the play in contemporary time in Venice and Belmont. Antonio is a respected and affluent merchant of Venice and is brooding. His beloved Bassanio has fallen for Portia, a wealthy heiress in Belmont who is bound to require a lavish suit to be wooed successfully. Antonio's twittering friends taunt him playfully that he is morbidly pre-occupied with his wealth at sea: an erroneous but prescient suggestion, which he brushes aside. He is unable to resist Bassanio's plea for yet another loan to support his extravagant lifestyle and, while Antonio's disposable capital is temporarily afloat, he promises to raise a loan and personally provide the surety. Shylock is a Jew and money-lender notorious for his exacting debt collection and rate of ‘interest'. He has been humiliated by Antonio in the most public of places in Venice, the Rialto, on account of his religion and ‘usury'. They hold each other in mutual disdain but when approached by Bassanio about a loan of three thousand ducats Shylock recognises Antonio's financial reliability and entertains the possibility. This was the debut in the UK of TFANA's production of The Merchant of Venice . It worked because it was an integrated ensemble of director with actors and with set, lighting, sound and costume design and, most importantly, appropriate regard throughout for Shakespeare's modulated dynamic of passion and playfulness. Darko Tresnjak assisted by Suzanna Gellert direct a coherent and convincing production timed in the ‘near future'. The set was understated and unified from start to finish by a translucent back screen on which three laptops on simple tables project their images and adapt their various roles, from rich caskets to state-of-the-art work stations, as required in Belmont or Venice. The importance of this device is central to the success of the production and determines much of the humour and focus of repartee. Credit for this must be due to all the direction and design team, but particularly perhaps to John Lee Beatty, Matthew Myhrum and Daniel Hartnett. The exploitation of mobile phones was absolutely proper, knitting the consciousness of the play with the familiarity of everyday life, to better suggest to the audience the required interpretation of character, emotional tone or flirtatious exchange. Kate Forbes' Portia and Christen Simon's Nerissa were never more believably human than their giggling exchanges over the mobile photos of the suitors. It was so marvellously ‘Oh Hallo' when the not-so-princely Princes had their pictures snapped with Portia and her entourage. But most effective of all was F. Murray Abrahams Shylock, desperately searching for a fading signal as he tried to pick up news of the whereabouts of Jessica and his jewels, and then picked up scarcely decipherable details of Antonio's fleet. Individual scenes were specified by the economical use of unambiguous props such as the candlesticks and hanging lamp-lights in Shylock's house and his portable scales, plastic-wrapped counterweight, and simple pocket knife sharpened threateningly across the sole of his shoe in court. Subtle background lighting changes under the direction of David Weiner and Lauren Phillips combined unobtrusively to finesse the scenes, and Jane Shaw, with assistance from Alex Hawthorn and Arielle Edwards, managed the projection of manipulation of sound confidently, never once letting the audience down. ‘Dressing up' has to be one of the most ubiquitous of human habits and can be the make or break of a good production. There is something comedic in itself about the flurry of anxiety to get just the right costume fitted in ‘just the right way' when nerves are frayed with minutes to go. But Linda Cho and Emily Pepper got it right every time. A background theme of New York ‘Urban Chic' was immediately identifiable: but never monotonous or out of place. Nor did it constrain the cast by formulaic minimalism or blandness. Ezra Knight's Morocco simply could not have exploded into Belmont without his pink parachute suit trailing straps and halters like a Mardi-Gras cloak. Kate Forbes took a deep intake of breath and the audience convulsed: was he ACTUALLY GOING TO STRIP? In complete contrast was the sack-like un-chic shift which dressed Nicole Lowrance's Jessica, while down-trodden in subservience in her Father's household. And yet again, the stark and unmistakable ‘orangeness' of death row garb barely covers Tom Nelis as his Antonio is prepared for the knife lending chill and electricity to the climax of the play. My only criticism of the costume was that Portia's high heels made her embrace with Bassanio just a little more anxious than it might have been. Just a wee word about the wonderful wig… There was at least one and boy, was it obvious! Thanks to Charles Lapoint it was a hoot from heaven, flopped on the head of Marc Vietor's Arragon, and it was simply stunning. The only problem was: it didn't drop off, and we were all willing it to! If only it had been allowed to detach from his polished pate at the point of flamboyant departure. But perhaps that would have been too ridiculous. What about the acting?
Almost without exception, the quality of acting was superlatively good and Deborah Brown's casting could scarcely have been improved upon. It is impossible to do justice to the characterisation and interpretation embodied by the all members of the cast, and easy to show mercy to the minor misdemeanours and weaknesses: of which there were but few. The major parts and the vignettes were all well studied, rounded performances obviously benefiting from the collaboration on voice and text between the RSC's Cicely Berry and TFANA's JM Feindel. What was striking about the larger roles was their actors' ability to ‘evolve' within them as the play progressed: particularly true of Murray Abraham, Kate Forbes, Tom Nellis and Kenajuan Bentley. F Murray Abraham's Shylock was unforgettable. His towering projection of a Shylock embittered by years of humiliation and alienation was achieved by a constraint on emotional display that only served to heighten the passion of its release when driven to anguish or defiant defence. His ‘I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew not eyes? Hath not a Jew hands….' etc was searing in its intensity and seemed to penetrate even the hooligan harassment of Cameron Folmar's Solanio and Matthew Schneck's Salerio. Whatever the perspectival ‘take' on the direction of prejudice within the play, the final crushing of his identity and the visceral nausea of his despair could not but make us question the meaning of ‘justice and mercy' as enacted. Kate Forbes brought a studied grace and brilliance of wit, and above all a diamond-sharp diction, to Portia. Her public persona was delightfully offset by her private interchanges with Christen Simon's Nerissa, and her restraint blossomed into full ardour with Saxon Palmer's Bassanio. The chemistry between them worked well. Christen Simon was thoroughly in command of her role as Portia's maid and clerk in court. Her swipes at John Lavelle's Gratiano in the closing scenes of domestic denouement were on target! John Lavelle got us laughing early on, and provided a energised foil for the melancholically ‘slowed-down' Antonio played by Tom Nellis, whose physical height added to his detachment. Nellis was well cast, and maintained a poise that marked him out as ‘superior' in the eyes of his friends and countrymen. His emotional range was extensive and led him from gentle expressions of indulgence to unmitigated disdain. His moment of near death before the knife almost fell was physiological in its reactivity and utterly decisive. What a great shame that at times his diction was less than crisp, and allowed some important words at the end of lines to coalesce and lose their potency. The greatest clown however was Kenajuan Bentley as Launcelot Gobbo. His conversational soliloquy with his conscience, beautifully projected into a dialogue between two members of the audience whom he identified with a fluffy playground halo and spangled red horns was perfect and well received. In some ways, one of the most difficult roles was that of Jessica. Nicole Lowrance presented a quivering daughter, a daredevil escapee in boys clothing, a blushingly hesitant newly wed for Vince Nappo's Lorenzo melting, in the privacy of night, into wonderfully uninhibited sex play with more than just a hint of a tempestuous relationship ahead. Each part was played with internal consistency ans conviction, but there was not quite the same sense of an evolution within her character as might have been predicted for the rolet: rather a set of different parts. It could have been deliberate, but it left the slightest sense of disconnection, and was difficult to gauge. Of course it was not just the individual acting but the choreography of dialogue that provided so much cohesion within the play: the listening and the spaces, the acting without speech, the winks and the nods, the mouthings and the signings that breathe life into the unheard background conversations. Take the wonderfully slight moment when we realise that Arnie Burton's Balthazar is phone- flirting with the Prince of Morocco's servant: echoing a fleeting interest that Portia might have had in Morocco, but hinting at the possibility of so much more in their own case! Or take Burton's priceless reflex in scooping up the golden laptop before it was smashed in peevish tantrum at making the wrong choice. And please don't forget Arnie's glasses: glasses maketh the man!
Tickets: RSC Hotline: 0844-800-1110; Fax: 01789-403 413; www.rsc.org.uk The Swan Theatre: Waterside, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire CV37 6BB
© CE Parker 30 th March 2007
Copyright © EXTRA! EXTRA! www.extraextra.org The only online theatrical publication for and by its readers All rights reserved
|
A review by Claire Parker for EXTRA! EXTRA!