April 2011
3 posts
Speaking of Merchant, Who Is Shylock Arguing With...
As long as we’re on the subject, I want to take a look at a famous speech from Merchant of Venice, the speech where Shylock justifies, to two of his tormentors, his thirst for vengeance.
SALARINO:
Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his flesh: what’s that good for?
SHYLOCK:
To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced...
The Merchant of Wall Street?
Watching the Theatre for a New Audience’s production of The Merchant of Venice (I saw it in New York; it’s now on tour, currently in Boston, then headed to Los Angeles), which is set vaguely on Wall Street, I kept wondering how to square the sociology on display with what I know about actual reality. Wall Street, after all, hasn’t been an old-line WASP preserve for at least a...
March 2011
3 posts
Ah, Pirates, Pirates, Pirates! Love Me And Hate...
In 2008, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival staged an adaptation of Herman Melville’s epic novel, Moby Dick. And I clearly recall the moment when that production went from “interesting” to “Wow!” Morris Panych, working in a relatively small space and with a relatively tight budget, made the decision to do as much as he could with as little as he could. So: there was...
