The Merchant of Venice
A review of the Merchant of Venice playing at the Meteor in Hamilton.
When you decide to go to Michael Switzer’s The Merchant of Venice, and I suggest you do, do not expect to slump back in your seat and let the play begin.
No, you hold the future of six young actors in your hand. Well, the next few hours of their future at least.
It’s all part of the way Switzer makes this Shakespearean classic new and exciting – a challenge all directors taking on Shakespeare must face.
The play performed at the Meteor is set in 1590s Venice, true to the script. Antonio the sad merchant guarantees a loan for his friend Bassanio, so that he may pursue his love Portia.
The lender is a nasty Jew named Shylock, who relishes in the idea of taking a pound of Antonio’s flesh when he fails to pay back the loan.
There are six lovers in the play. Bassanio’s friend Gratiano falls in love with Portia’s maid Nerissa, and his other friend Lorenzo with Shylock’s daughter Jessica.
The special thing about this version is that the male and female lovers have learnt all three parts, leaving you to choose who plays who.
Either I was at the best possible combination or these are very skilled actors, for I could not imagine any of them in roles other than their own.
As David Bowers-Mason stumbled around as Gratiano spitting on floors and seats, I struggled to picture him playing as gentle a Lorenzo as Henry Ashby’s.
Despite the occasional kerfuffle over lines when a character began before their cue, the dialogue was delivered well. But the actors definitely shone in their monologues.
The audience was engaged from the beginning. Alice Kimber-Bell as Nerissa targeted a few men in the audience to swoon over, before Jenna Hudson as Portia shattered their dreams with cutting insults.
A special note must also go out to Graeme Cairns who captured the comedic and tragic sides of the play through his performance of Shylock. The man who had the audience laughing in his first appearance could have brought them to tears in his rendition of the famous speech “hath a Jew not eyes”.
The Merchant of Venice is playing at the Meteor, 7:30 Wednesday to Saturday. Tickets $28/$18.
