The Merchant of Venice
To confront the Merchant of Venice is to confront Shylock.
The risk is deviating from the main theme to linger on the story of the most famous Jewish Venetian and the “pound of flesh” in question.
In staging the Merchant of Venice Solimano Pontarollo, called upon the help of Andrea De Manincor, who in the adaption, collaborated to rebalance the themes. This approach allowed Shylock’s drama to emerge without overshadowing or rendering the rest of the story superficial. Starting with Baldassarre, the lawyer – none other than Portia in disguise – who guided the audience through the plot, thus presenting a Merchant where all the main characters have full reason to be there. The plot remerges as the protagonist in all its facets, and thanks to this, we are given an extraordinary Portia – a “deus ex machina” of story – a fully realized Bassanio, mature and distanced from his previous life, and Antonio, with rich inner complexity. From this, an almost magical opportunity arises to experience the story of the Jew perhaps even more intensely.
On stage:
Director: Solimano Pontarollo
Script adaptation: Andrea de Manincor
Actors: Andrea De Manincor, ANTONIO – Solimano Pontarollo, SHYLOCK – Francesco Martucci, BASSANIO – Giulia Lacorte, PORTIA
Singer: Beatrice Zuin
Duration: 50 minutes
Language: Accompaniment in Italian and dialogues in English and only in Italian
Venue: Theatre space or itinerant venue
Performance: In Elizabethan costume
