Series | Studi e ricerche
Edited book | The Merchant in Venice: Shakespeare in the Ghetto
Chapter | Playing the Angles: Finding Shylock and Gratiano

Playing the Angles: Finding Shylock and Gratiano

Abstract

Written by one of the only members of Compagnia de Colombari who worked on Coonrod’s Merchant in all of its iterations, this chapter gives a jobbing actor’s account of the 2016 production from its pre-life to its afterlife. For Sorab Wadia, the most daunting challenge was to double Shylock, the dignified Venetian moneylender in the opening scene, with Gratiano, the spitting Jew-baiter of the rest of the play. He could not reconcile the two parts, but he found, in rehearsing and performing them, how they – and the play – needed each other. Being in this play, he thinks, is like finding yourself in a George Braque painting.


Open access

Published June 10, 2021 | Language: en

Keywords Site specific performanceThe Merchant of VeniceGeorge Braque and ShakespeareActors on ShakespeareShylockGratianoPerforming ShakespeareRehearsal


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