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.
Keywords: Actors on Shakespeare • George Braque and Shakespeare • Performing Shakespeare • Gratiano • Rehearsal • The Merchant of Venice • Site specific performance • Shylock