Word: bassanio
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Playing opposite her, an ambitious chore in itself is David Hammond. He makes Bassanio a shade more sympathetic than might be appropriate, but the characterization has been so carefully worked out that his performance overrides most doubts as to its legitimacy in terms of the play. As the subsidiary love interests, Lorenzo and Jessica, Pope Brock and Phyllis Ward create some of the production's finest moments. The scene in which Jessica escapes with her lover evokes a spirit of tender innocence that would find a nice home in any Romeo and Juliet...
...Bassanio is generally thought to be an attractive young man, "a scholar and a soldier," and, Portia states, "the best deserving a fair lady." But John Cunningham uses an annoyingly exaggerated clipped delivery, and his inflections leave no doubt that he is less drawn to the fair lady than to her wealth ("a lady richly left,"sunny locks. . . like a golden fleece"). And when Shylock puts a finger on his shoulder, he pulls back in a gesture of loathing.M...
...suitors for her hand come to make their choices from among the caskets, they are of course supposed to have free rein, as prescribed in her father's will. But this Portia does everything she can to lead the princes of Morocco and Arragon to a wrong choice and Bassanio to the right one. She cheats on her own father...
Chary of overdoing trial scenes, Shakespeare made them as airtight as a Supreme Court brief-perhaps most notably in The Merchant of Venice. At issue is Shylock's 3,000-ducat loan to Antonio, who borrowed the money to help Bassanio sue for Portia's hand. If Antonio fails to repay in three months, says Shylock...
Laurinda Barrett was an admirable Portia, and Robert Blackburn a forceful Bassanio. But Basil Langton failed to give much color to the title role of Antonio...