 | Merchant of Venice |  |
"If you prick us, do we not bleed?
if you tickle us, do we not laugh?
if you poison us, do we not die?
and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" Act III, scene i
Written: 1598
California Shakespeare Theater ; August 17, 2006 Orinda, CA
Starring :
Reviewed on : 2006-08-30 11:34:10 ; Reviewed by : Denise Battista
| I entered the Bruns Memorial Amphitheater on a frigid summer evening and was
thrilled to see the 500+ house seated to the gills. Not bad for a Thursday
night. The couple in front of me informed me that this is often the case at
Cal Shakes, making advance ticket purchasing a good idea. Happy was I to
settle in with my cocoa and my "donate if/what you can" blanket that helped
to take the chill out of the air.
The stage is vast and oddly shaped -- nothing I can delineate from high
school geometry - but in result, there are blind spots for audience members
sitting stage left and stage right, and a lack of acoustics that devour
words and voices (particularly those of Jenny Bacon as Portia) that are not
projected directly to the audience. A neon sign reading "We Buy" on one
side, and "We Sell" on the other rotates a good forty feet above right
stage, and large projection screens face the audience from above - two
center, and one for the patrons stage left. As we settle into our seats,
the actors linger onto the stage. Antonio (Andrew Weems), wearing a white
leisure suit, sits on a cushioned chair upstage in a pool of sighs, and
other hip-looking gents drape themselves under umbrellaed chairs in casual
impatience while the audience settles.
My concentration is almost immediately thrown, and it unfortunately only
comes back to me in spurts of good acting. This production spends most of
its time drowning out Shakespeare's language, be it by ocular or auricular
distractions. Loudly played popular music by the Stones, Madonna, and the
Talking Heads plays over important dialogue, and actors make gaudy,
premature entrances while other actors try to act. Let me play the
fool, but I would rather hear Graziano (otherwise well-played by Andy
Murray) philosophize on Antonio's melancholy than hear Mick Jagger sing "You
Can't Always Get What You Want," and I'd rather hear Bassanio's description
of the fair Portia than be distracted by Bacon clunking her heels upon the
stage and flinging money from her oversized purse. It also doesn't help
that Bacon is dressed more like a trashy Paris Hilton than one of wondrous
virtues.
Other problems: This production uses video in abundantly strange ways.
While Antonio, Bassanio, and Shylock discuss the details of the impending
bond, they sit behind a dumpster (which is apparently Shylock's home) to the
far right of the stage. A cameraman films the conversation, which is
projected onto the screens above the stage. This does provide a different
perspective, creating an intimacy by focusing on the actors from different
vantage points, but I was never quite sure whether I should look at the
actors on the stage or on the screen, and I still haven't a clue as to the
purpose of it all. The only reason that I could come up with is that the
projections permit the audience seated far stage right and left to see what
is happening onstage, but why not act this scene center stage so we can all
see and hear? The actors also speak into a microphone whenever they are
being filmed, making their voices tinny, and again, with the word of the
day, "distracting."
Video monopolizes the last twenty minutes of the production, and it does so
in a soap opera sort of manner. I was so displeased, and actually felt
cheated when the actors gathered around a laptop and watched Michael Radford's
2004 production of "The Merchant of Venice" in lieu of acting out Bassanio's
entrance into Belmont. The audience is not left out of movie night, as the
film is projected onto the screens above. I sat and watched Joseph Fiennes
waltzing into Lynn Collins' castle for well over five minutes. Why not act
this scene yourselves? I can rent the film anytime. This is followed by a
series of homemade movies, including a simulated sex scene between Lorenzo
(Max Gordon Moore) and Jessica (Elvy Yost), composed of boisterous donkey
kicks on a cheap hotel bed. These films take us to the end of the
production, and I suppose permit the actors to break down the stage for a
nothing but odd final scene. After the pre-filmed hotel episodes, a light
glows on David Chandler as Shylock, who sits at a conference table that
holds a garage sale of his belongings. Portia and Bassanio, Nerissa and
Graziano retire to an inflatable bed up stage left and engage in an orgy,
which is of course projected onto the screens. Weems walks over and sits
awkwardly on the corner of the mattress, and Chandler soon joins them.
Chandler pulls the plug and the mattress slowly deflates to the Talking
Heads song, "Heaven." What the?!
Although I may not agree with or understand the reasoning behind director
Daniel Fish's production, I can't argue with the fact that some good actors
grace this stage. Elvy Yost is a charming Jessica. Something about her
reminds me of a young Claire Danes, and although her part is relatively
small, her presence is graceful and welcome. Her stage father, David
Chandler, is at times mesmerizing, at times perfectly subtle, and at times
he jolts me from my chair. Chandler captures Shylock's internal anger and
his repression with animalistic growls of "Revenge," and I was wonderfully
shocked when he dropped to all fours like a cur after receiving his
sentence, and proceeded in all vulgarity to sniff Portia and the Duke
(doubled by Elvy) between the legs before scurrying offstage. I only wish
that Chandler had not broken the cardinal rule of acting by breaking
character during intermission. To guide us into the second half of the
production, Chandler does standup comedy center stage. How is an audience
supposed to engage themselves in Shylock and in the intense emotions of this
play after Chandler tells a bad joke about a parrot that only knows vulgar
language?
On a final and very high note, Nick Westrate is brilliant. Not only does he
portray a most dashing Bassanio; he struts his comedic prowess when he
portrays all of Portia's suitors. I hoped to catch him after the
performance to ask him why why why does he wear a full, black and white cat
costume when he acts the part of Morocco, but the opportunity did not arise.
I despised the costume, and the moment when he removed the head and made it
rip at his neck to the point of an onstage death, but other than that, he is
a pleasure upon the stage and deserved a more boisterous applause in the
end.
The California Shakespeare Theater's production of The Merchant of Venice, directed by Daniel Fish, is playing at the Bruns Memorial Amphitheater through September 3, 2006. Visit www.calshakes.org for more information.
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Sir John Gilbert, R.A.,
The Moneylenders
Reviews
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April 10, 2008 |  | Stratford Festival of Canada
August 3, 2007 |  | OVO at Trestle Arts Base
April 20, 2007 |  | California Shakespeare Theater
August 17, 2006 |  | MGM
2005 |  | Royal Shakespeare Company
1998 |  | William Poel
1898 |  | Junius Brutus Booth (1796-1852)
c. 1800 |  | John Philip Kemble (1757-1823)
1784 |  | Charles Macklin
c. 1740 |  | George Granville
1701 |
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