“It goes without saying that ‘The Merchant of Venice’ is a desperately difficult play to stage for a 21st century audience,” said Joyce McMillan in The Scotsman. Torn between his desire to give all his characters “a credible and persuasive human voice” and the “ingrained antisemitism” of his time, Shakespeare left them “stranded” between “outward romantic comedy and bitter underlying tragedy”.
The “great strength” of Arin Arbus’s production, first seen in New York, is that it embraces this space “as its own territory”, and lays the play out here with “fearless clarity”. Set in an American city in the near future – a place of “boozed-up men in suits where today’s broligarchs” might feel at home – it has at its heart a “remarkable” performance by the Black actor John Douglas Thompson as Shylock, the Jewish moneylender the Christians need for their business ventures but despise for his faith.
Played with “cool authority”, this Shylock is “even-tempered and jovial”, said Mark Fisher in The Guardian; and though a darker side lies beneath that “genial surface”, it’s less a character flaw than the “product of an oppressive culture”. Meanwhile Antonio, for instance, comes across as sensitive, generous. With his aura of relaxed affluence, you can imagine he’d help a friend in financial trouble; but he and the other men are used to things going their way. When they do not, “their antisemitic outbursts are poisonous”.
The themes running through this production are bleak ones, said Allan Radcliffe in The Times – “dehumanising racism and uncomfortable male-female relations”. With only minor changes to the text, “the play’s mix of brutality and comedy are heightened and sharpened here to sometimes shocking effect”.
Thompson’s performance is “magisterial”, said Simon Thompson on What’s on Stage. But the whole company bristles with “New World swagger”, bringing vivid life – and striking vocal clarity – even to lesser roles. “I can’t remember a recent Shakespeare production where the power of the diction drew me in so quickly”, while the climactic trial scene is “nothing short of gripping”.
The Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh. Until 15 February