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The Merchant in Venice: Shakespeare in the Ghetto

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

Thema codes DSG • ATD • 5PX-GB-S • 1DST-IT-NVE

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.