The Merchant of Venice

This must have been a bitter-sweet experience for the Peterborough Mask Theatre group, having sadly lost a key member of their team…Rich Unwin, who was a very prolific director for the company and had begun early plans for The Merchant of Venice, but what a credit to him and to the director, Tom Fox, this production was.

There are three words which, for me, sum up the Peterborough Mask version of The Merchant of Venice…WOW…WOW and WOW!

Performing in the open air can be fraught with problems but as soon as my party was shown to their seats we felt relaxed and contemplated the performance ahead of us.

The setting in the park was charming; the ‘stage’ area had a natural rake to it and, combined with an impressive backdrop of lovely large trees, created an ethereal atmosphere in the early evening sun.

From the first moment the actors stepped on stage it was clear that this was a well-planned production with a focussed and imaginative director and crew at the helm.  The cast were confident and relaxed in their performances and from the off the audience were engaged.  In fact, the interaction with the audience was a delight.  No old fashioned taboos about making eye contact in this production…no…the audience were used to enhance the storyline and it gave the play a freshness that is so often missing in amateur theatre.  

The story of Shylock and his ‘pound of flesh’ is well known but is more complex than one might believe.  Is there an anti-Semitic purpose to the plot?   Well, Shylock is certainly vilified and there is no love lost between him and ‘the Christians’.   During Shakespeare’s lifetime the population of Jews in England was relatively low and we may never fully understand his motives for depicting Shylock, the money lender, in the stereotypical way he does.

Steve Green (Shylock) was every inch the character.  He not only looked the part but he gave Shylock gravitas without slipping in to creating a caricature of the man.  There is a balancing act in achieving Shylock’s absolute determinism for justice to be exacted and yet not allowing the audience to lose all compassion for him ("if you prick us do we not bleed?"); an excellent performance Steve.

And then we have the beautiful and very clever Portia, who so brilliantly saves her love Bassanio from losing even an ounce of flesh.  Ashlea Wales was perfectly cast in this role.  She embodied Portia and gave her wit, charm and guile…captivating her audience.  Playing dual personalities with such ease was a real treat for the audience and allowed Ashlea to demonstrate what a skilful actress she is…well done.

I am loathe to name individual performances as all the cast played their parts to perfection…from the excellent Jonni Hilton and Jan Wright (Launcelot Gobbo and Old Gobbo) to the Verina Henchy (Woman with bucket)  there was not a single weak performance in the entire play.  Everyone stayed in character even when they had a short trek across the back of the set or walk to the tent which served as the green room.  This was a production that made the very best of the surroundings and attained a very high standard of professionalism. 

The sound and lighting, especially as the evening grew darker, was superb and the use of choreography was brilliant and very reminiscent of Shakespeare at The Globe Theatre…high praise indeed.  The use of props was minimal but worked to maximum effect.  The cast were so well rehearsed that I don’t think anything would have fazed them…although they may think otherwise. 

I can only finish by offering my heartfelt congratulations to the entire cast, the backstage team, the myriad of other people who helped create this production but especially to Tom Fox, for bring The Merchant of Venice to life.  I can’t wait to see what you decide on the Shakespeare 450th birthday plans.

Bella Coleman

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