Abigail Graham’s production of The Merchant of Venice, at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, sets out with the stated intention to “reclaim Shakespeare’s disturbing tale”, from whom it is not clear, but it successfully reframes the ancient hatreds central to the text in a way that will sit even more uncomfortably with contemporary audiences. If it does not make viewers confront their own prejudices it will at least make them reconsider characters who have sometimes been presented in a shamefully uncritical light.
Last week there was the inevitable hand-wringing from certain sections of the media about a “woke alert” on the theatre’s website, warning that the play contains “racism, including anti-semitism and anti-black racism”. To people familiar with the play, none of this will come as a surprise, but there is no reasonable objection to telling unsuspecting theatre-goers what they are letting themselves in for. Indeed, it would have been considerate if they had mentioned that it begins with a rendition of the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling”.
In all seriousness though, this version of the play doesn’t just forewarn the audience about prejudice on a website. It calls it out on stage, sometimes overtly, but more often with subtext, irony, disapproving glances, and through cleverly emphasised micro-aggressions.
The cast is universally strong, but Sophie Melville is outstanding. She presents Portia as a coquettish, quick-witted monster, whose deep-seated racism is highlighted brilliantly in interactions with her maid, Nerissa (Tripti Tripuraneni). You reproach yourself for liking her. It’s also difficult not to root for Shylock, who Adrian Schiller portrays sympathetically, as a rigid man whose faith in rules is confounded by a society that is arrayed against him. Good, thought-provoking entertainment.
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