Today I watched my roommate in a production of The Merchant of Venice. I’ve always enjoyed Shakespeare and the moment when you really understand what’s going on and can translate that into acting. Earlier this year I took a Shakespeare class. Because of that, I decided to make myself a soft goal to see all of the first folio (his main original body of work) in its entirety.
This was my first time seeing Merchant, so I was glad to remember that it was a comedy (I didn’t really feel like being bummed out today). As a whole, I would say the play hasn’t aged really well, so I was trying to view it through two lenses: my modern day perspective and the POV of someone who lived in Elizabethan England.
From my lens, it’s a very antisemitic play with the “Shylock” character, the crotchety old villain, mainly representing the Jews, with the only other real character who’s Jewish being his daughter, Jessica, whose whole storyline involves her running away to get married to a Christian man and convert (something she does pretty readily). It felt like an intentional choice to have that be the Jewish representation, and it was a little weird to actively root for the antisemites as the narrative encourages.
From an older perspective, it really could’ve been any two groups that were the “good” and “bad” guys, and it mostly felt weird because it was punching down at a more discriminated-against class.
My roommate did a great job (unsurprisingly), and it was really fun to watch her play Lorenzo. Overall, with the context in mind, I enjoyed the play for the most part, and was just proud to see my friend doing what she loves and happy to get the chance to support her.
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Thanks for reading!
Holly
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