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