FOUR hundred years on, Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice continues to
stir up all kinds of controversy. In America the play with its dicey
portrait of Shylock, the Jewish merchant, is now considered too racially
sensitive and is on the proscribed list.
John Barton's 1980s production left its audience in no doubt as to the
cruelty of the alien community in which Shylock found himself. Even the
estimable Portia and her Belmont playmates had question marks hanging
over them by the end: a spoilt and spiteful lot.
David Thacker's production, by comparison, asks fewer racial questions
though digs deeper in gender terms befitting a realignment of the play
in Thatcher's Britain and Portia (Penny Downie) very androgynous and
trim in pinstripesuit.
David Calder's Merchant, in his braces and smart suit, is the typical
kind of successful city dealer marking him out as any one of the tribe
of ''assimilated'' British Jewry who have taken their place in Britain's
cultural life. Calder is outstanding at this point in the game (though
less convincing later).
With its themes of probity, persecution and racial integrity, this
production demands to be seen more, not less.
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