Studi e ricerche

The Merchant in Venice: Shakespeare in the Ghetto

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open access
    edited by
  • Shaul Bassi - Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia - email orcid profile
  • Carol Chillington Rutter - University of Warwick, UK - email

Abstract

This book records the landmark performance of The Merchant of Venice in the Venetian Ghetto in 2016, the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death and the 500th anniversary of the Jewish quarter that gave the world the word ‘ghetto’. Practitioners and critics discuss how this multi-ethnic production and its radical choice to cast five actors as Shylock provided the opportunity to respond creatively to Europe’s legacy of antisemitism, racism and difference. They observe how the place and play stand as ambivalent documents of civilization: instruments of intolerance but also sites of cultural exchange.

Keywords Site specific performance • Ruth Bader Ginsburg • Site-specific design • Site-specific performance • History • Mercy • Otto Taubmann • Humanities • Lighting design • Compagnia de’ Colombari • Directing Shakespeare • Gratiano • Holocaust • Adapting Shakespeare • Music • Josef B • Reynaldo Hahn • The quality of mercy • Adrian Beecham • Fiction • Jews • Memory • Opera • Translation • Narrativization • Ghetto • Aldo Finzi • Ciro Pinsuti • Lancelot Gobbo • Performing Shakespeare • Children’s literature • Shylock • Lorenzo • Portia • Mock Trial: Shylock v • F • Rehearsal • Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco • Children reading Shakespeare • Designing Shakespeare • Jessica • Karin Coonrod • Venice • The Merchant in the Ghetto • Antisemitism • Site-specific Shakespeare • Laurence Olivier • Shakespeare’s comedies of love • Music design • Bassanio • Antonio • Actors on Shakespeare • Chromaticism • Aestheticism • Costume design • Heritage • Charles and Mary Lamb • Lewis Carroll • Adaptation • George Braque and Shakespeare • Shakespeare’s trial scenes • Murray Abraham • The Merchant of Venice in the Ghetto • Mock Appeal: Shylock v • The Merchant of Venice • Theatre design • Foerster

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-503-2 | e-ISBN 978-88-6969-503-2 | ISBN (PRINT) 978-88-6969-504-9 | Number of pages 238 | Dimensions 16x23cm | Published June 10, 2021 | Language en

Copyright © 2021 Shaul Bassi, Carol Chillington Rutter. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.