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

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.