| Description |
Set in 1930. 'Snatches of the crucifixion story flicker on a flimsy screen strung from a Greek-looking column. The old-fashioned reel is played on an equally old-fashioned projector, centre stage. The on-stage audience, when the lights eventually rise sufficiently for identification, turns out to be Portia and her household. Thye leave wordlessly and the play proper gets underway. The off-stage audience can hardly miss the significance of the crucifixion when the issues at hand are to significantly revolve around the conflict of Christian and Jew. But the epic musical and lighting effects with which director Michael Hurst opens and punctuates his Merchant of Venice, and the recurrent theme of a cinematic exercise is opaque with innuendo, stylish surprise and dramatic device. It is not easy - but intriguing. Add the most elegant costumes, vintage 1930, and sets by John harding that include a mosaic floor; a set of semicircular marble terraces topped with aforementioned columns which slide and divide; a breathtaking facade on a Venetian dwelling by day - complete with fountains and an ornate wrought-iron and candlelit gate by night, and Hurst's Merchat is looking really grand'. |
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