The merchant of Venice 1936

I first read Merchant of Venice in my first year of secondary school. The main thing I remembered about it was that it included a venture gone wrong for the hero, who had made a deal with a financier (Shylock) who wanted his pound of flesh in return for the loss of the loan he had made, and that it was pretty anti-Semitic. 

It's interesting what one remembers about a play. This version (with Tracey-Ann Oberman) is the first time I've seen it live and there are clearly some adjustments to the text with the inclusion of the 1936 Battle of Cable Street into the narrative, but otherwise I think it was quite faithful. I was surprised about how much of the plot I'd forgotten. In particular, the clear anti-semitism of Antonio, the close relationship between Antonio and Bessanio, and how Portia dominates the legal trial (while pretending to be a man - which I'd completely forgotten). 

These aren't particularly nuanced pieces in the play. Antonio clearly despises Shylock, loves Bessanio, and Portia makes clever technical arguments. By to my 14-year old self, clearly what stuck was the ask for the pound of flesh. The macabre deal is one of the most striking aspects of the plot but watching the play what struck me was the relationships the protagonist (who was not the hero) held with others. With Shylock he is dismissive or insulting at best, with Bessanio, he offers just about everything, and to his wife he's clearly somewhat ambivalent. He comes across as a confident character for whom things tend to go right, and he treats his friends well, and then suddenly he enters this sudden catastrophe and all his past flaws come up to meet him. 

Shakespeare is clear that Shylock is no saint. Even when offered multiple times the value of the original loan, Shylock is so driven by revenge that he cannot bear to give up his quest for vengeance. He has lost his daughter (through love) and Antonio was clearly responsible in some part for his poor reputation; he shows he'll seek any amount of harm to Antonio to strike back in the world. In this, I found Shylock a believable character - someone who had been harmed so much that now all they wanted to do was strike back in any way possible. A wiser, level-headed character would have taken the money and lectured all on their mercy and moral superiority, instead Shylock pushes and loses everything. This would have been a strong moral ending, except it is so clear that Antonio didn't learn from his ordeal - he offers his lawyer anything and the lawyer (Portia in disguise) asks for the ring that Portia (not in disguise) had previously commanded their husband to never remove. He did not learn anything about risks, or being unable to take back promises. Portia condemns her husband and then forgives him (though the actress is very clearly doing it to move on and is still hurt). In this, Portia shows she's learned from Shylock to not seek total victory. But she also seems to have learned not to trust her husband, which Shylock already knew. 

Part of the wonder of Shakespeare now is that the language and context is quite jarring. It takes time to understand exactly what is going on in each play if you're not familiar with the detail, and this production was very good in introducing ideas and characters, and helping a modern audience understand exactly what was going on. 

The link to 1936 was OK, not great. The echoes of Antisemitism throughout the ages leading to assault and degradation in both 16th Century Venice and 20th Century England was well done, but the comparison of the Battle of Cable Street and The Merchant of Venice fell a bit flat. One was a street brawl between local Jewish residents and their allies (explained as the poor, trade unionists, communists) and a mob of fascists, and the other was a legal battle between a financier and a failed businessman, whose friends and legal system clearly wanted to protect him. The comparison didn't quite work - the Dreyfus affair might have been a better comparison.

All in all, a solid production.

Play seen at Trafalgar Theatre on 9th January