Photo by Marnya Rothe
Could there be anything more problematic for a theatre company than tackling a production of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice? With its troupe of anti-Semitic characters surrounding a central character straight out of an Elizabethan Christian’s worst nightmare, it’s hard to find a ‘right’ way, among the tangled web of blatantly ‘wrong’ ways, to produce it.
Distinguished director Richard Cottrell believes that “neither the play nor Shakespeare can be called anti-semitic” and he has, accordingly, directed this Sport for Jove production without apology. It works, up to a point, but Cottrell’s stance is weak, and makes for a fairly weak production.
Designer Anna Gardiner’s beautiful Art Deco set and 1930’s costumes leave us in no doubt as to where we are in history, but the menacing import of the setting is never utilised. John Turnbull’s European-Jewish-accented Shylock attempts to extract his pound of flesh, makes great speeches in self-defence, and bemoans the other characters’ treachery to laudable effect, but he seems to be in a different play to all the pretty, comic, Australian lads and ladettes busily getting hitched around him.
Even Shylock’s daughter, Jessica, has a broad Australian accent, and seems to be in the other of the two plays we’re simultaneously watching. She remains there until the last moment, when Cottrell suddenly invites us to question her security in the ‘Christian’ world to which she obviously belongs. But it’s a whispered question, which comes much too late to deliver anything like the punch we would expect from a production of this play.
Despite, or perhaps because of its light touch, this Merchant of Venice is very easy watching. Lizzie Schebesta is just as beautiful, amusing and strong-willed a Portia as we could wish to see, and Erica Lovell is great as her sidekick, Nerissa. Throw in Aaron Tsindos’s turbaned, declamatory Prince of Morocco (whom many of Tsindos’s friends in the audience found almost unbearably hilarious) and you have a great comic act. Michael Cullen’s clowning Lancelot Gobbo is also lots of fun while Damien Strouthos as Gratiano and Darcy Brown as Solanio have excellent comic timing.
Chris Stalley’s Bassanio is given little to do except declaim exceptional friendship for his best mate Antonio, and exceptional love for Portia, but he manages to deserve them both. James Lugton’s Antonio suffers the most from this mild production – his paradoxically heroic and villainous character is a mere shadow, despite being the point on which the whole play turns.
All in all, this is a good introduction to The Merchant, especially for school groups. But for audiences used to the wild creativity companies such as Belvoir and Bell Shakespeare bring to their productions of the bard’s works, this production is far too conservative and gentle, and relies too much on the talented cast’s naturalistic, energetic playing, without taking the text into the deep, dark realms where it belongs.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
The Seymour Centre and Sport for Jove present
The Merchant of Venice
Directed by Richard Cottrell
The Seymour Centre, Chippendale
Until 30 May
