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

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.