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

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 | Numero pagine 238 | Dimensioni 16x23cm | Pubblicato 10 Giugno 2021 | Lingua 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.