Word: shylocks
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...MERCHANT of Venice is often a disturbing play for modern audiences, partly because of the overtones of morbidity and homosexuality in the friendship of Antonio and Bassanio, and partly because of the characters' anti-Semitism toward Shylock. The Currier House Drama Society production of Merchant tries to lessen audience anxiety by addressing these issues in novel ways and by taking advantage of opportunities for humor in what is, after all, supposed to be a comedy...
...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...
...opening scenes feature the nightclub antics of a group of tuxedo-clad young bachelors. They who booze it up and swing (literally) from the ceiling pipes--Keezers visits the Hasty Pudding Club. There is a constant supply of suitors and young fops to hang out at Shylock's nightclub, where the bartender, played by John Frederick, does an admirable acting job both as Launcelot Gobbo and the tippling drinkmaker Salerio (Richard Rutowski) and Solanio (Peter Vrooman) clown remarkably well in these scenes: they are especially endearing when they mock Shylock's cry of "My daughter, my ducats," bat somewhat abrasive...
...addition to the confusion about time, there is the problem of Shylock. King imbues the role with a range of interpretations, making the character truly come to life. He is evil and sly when he demands his "bond." pathetic and desperate when he calls for "revenge," and a maligned and wronged father when persecuted by the younger generation. But, why is he in an electric wheelchair, aside from its being a useful prop with which to propel him around the stage? Shylock is handicapped enough by being a Jew in a Christian society, and the '20s setting emphasizes that such...
When Antonio (Lewis Goldman) and Bassanio (Tony Klein) approach Shylock for Antonio's loan, the ambiguity is compounded. Although everyone is supposed be prosperous, Antonio needs a loan and "begs' Shylock while calmly smoking cigarette in the "villain's" face...