Word: rossman
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...director Jeffrey Rossman's production of The Merchant of Venice, which resembles the Bard's in script alone. Although the program informs us that "the action of the play occurs in the late 1920s" both before and after the stock market crash, the play incorporates such a hodgepodge of artifacts from different decades that it leaves us in no particular location at no particular point in time...
...Rossman deserves credit for his innovative idea of setting this play in the '20s, and the whole crew should be commended for their obviously meticulous efforts in carrying out the '20s theme in costume, set and atmosphere. But the anachronism just doesn't work...
When Shylock sings "Money Makes the World Go Around," in the middle of the play it is amusing. But Rossman has chosen to end the play with Antonio sitting alone in the darkened nightclub, slowly crooning this song's retrain. This seems to be an attempt to turn the play from a comedy into Shylock's tragedy...
This game show brings as out of the '20s and into the '70s. But wait--inside the silver casket is a picture of Ronald Reagan, and we are suddenly reminded of the '80s Rossman heaps anachronisms on top of anachronisms, from Portia's touch-once telephone to Jessica and Lorenzo's bout with marijuana, and the product gives the audience a queasy and disorienting trip through decades and centuries...
Jeffrey J. Rossman '86, who organized a group of students to attend the Cabot dinner, said. "It's a really good experience to meet someone who's a big name in the theater world...