Review of USF from a summer class.
The Merchant of Venice presents some difficulties to the production process because it switches between Belmont and Venice quite rapidly. There is thus a location change with many of the scenes, which is very impractical when you have a lot of props onstage to differentiate between locations. They handled this well by rearranging the scenes. Some of the timing was lost, but it flowed well and did not impact the plot in any major way. This play can also be very challenging because of its extremely controversial aspects. A Jew playing the “bad guy” is dangerous in our postholocaust world since people are very sensitive to anything that could be anti-Semitic. This combined with the lines that Shylock has been given make his role a crucial and difficult one to play.
After seeing Tony Amendola as the porter in Macbeth, I was very curious to see how he would do in his role as Shylock who is a very somber and intense character in comparison with the comedic porter. I was very satisfied with his portrayal of Shylock. He used some good approaches from previous actors in the role, but added some flair of his own. He made a fascinating singing exit at the end of the play and I liked that he slapped himself in his speech about the wrongs that Antonio had done him. I felt that Gary Neal Johnson did a good job of making Antonio seem human in the play. His love for Bassanio showed clearly and its contrast with his dislike of the Jew did not make him seem bad, only flawed like the rest of us. The scene where Shylock entrusts his house to his daughter, Jessica, was brilliantly played by Monica Lopez. Her antsy behavior as her father threatened not to go was a good representation of the distress that would have caused any young lady with plans to run away from home. I appreciated Aaron Galligan-Stierle’s acting in his role as Shylock’s servant, Lancelot Gobbo, because he played it with more intelligence than I had seen in the book, which made the character much better in my opinion. His vocal changes as he went through his lines were very entertaining. I also liked that they cut his father out and had him propose his desire to serve Bassanio by himself. I thought Grant Goodman played too stern a Bassanio in the beginning of the play, but I warmed up to him more by the end. Portia was well played by Emily Trask. She put plenty of emotion into her lines and actions, but maintained the good sense and intelligence that were necessary to the part. Her sheer white dress in the first scene was an excellent costuming choice.
In spite of the fact that this play covered a long period of time, David Mickelsen did not choose to have a lot of costume changes for the cast. I felt this worked well for this piece because it emphasized the costume changes that did occur and all of these changes were important to the plot since the cross-dressing is such a major theme in this play. Donna Ruzika’s lighting design for this show was simple, but well planned. The brighter light in the Belmont scenes depicted the mood of both places very well. Gerald Rheault’s choice of music for the scene with Portia’s suitor was absolutely brilliant. It added a good level of comedy to his failure and lightened up the play without detracting from the more somber events. My favorite part of Troy Hemmerling’s set design for this production was the red marble pillars. They added a nice touch of color and the marbling with that color looked kind of like meat, which was an interesting touch due to the importance of a pound of flesh in the scene. The meat during the scene where Antonio asks Shylock for money contributed to this imagery.
The staging of this production focused upon imagery a great deal. The director, Sharon Ott designed the blocking to create a good picture of who the characters were and how they related to one another. The scene at the beginning where Antonio had his head kissed and rubbed provided an excellent chance to observe the personality of all of those involved. The three young men trying to sit on the railing at the front of the stage and then falling backwards to lie on their backs with their legs hanging off was an interestingly picturesque moment as well. Slower moments like this one mixed in with the faster and more intense scenes to create an interesting and dynamic pace for the show. Overall, this was a fascinating depiction of Shakespeare’s famous play.
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