Cracking The Merchant of Venice at the home of the code-breakers
Chapterhouse bring Shakespeare's most controversial tale to a stormy open air theatre venue.
SHAKESPEARE'S creation of "the villain Jew" Shylock in The Merchant of Venice may appal modern audiences who are not used to hearing such deeply anti-Semitic dialogue but for historic theatre goers he was the ultimate pantomime baddie.
We gathered under stormy clouds at Bletchley Park on Sunday to be enthralled once again by the money-lender's demands for his "pound of flesh" in this latest rendition of The Bard's most controversial play performed by those experts of open air theatre, the Chapterhouse Theatre Company.
Chapterhouse has been touring the area throughout the summer, delighting crowds at Woburn Abbey and with this one-off date at the "Home of the Code-breakers".
Well no experts were needed to crack open The Merchant of Venice. The story is more an insight into the religious tensions and racial bigotry that pervaded in 16th and 17th centuries than one of love and redemption. Indeed both storylines sit uneasily in the same yarn.
Shylock is possibly one of Shakespeare's greatest creations. A man shaped by history and his environment and, while superficially he seems a vengeful fanatic, he deserves our sympathy for his treatment by others.
His greatest sin, in the playwright's eyes, is being Jewish, and his faith is assailed throughout by a range of supposedly sympathetic Christian characters.
The money lender gives 3,000 ducats to Antonio, a merchant of Venice, on condition that if it isn't paid back within three months, he will receive as payment "a pound of flesh". Thinking that the awful scenario will never come about the trader makes his pact with the devil only for things to go disastrously wrong.
The money was to help a love-sick young pup woo the girl of his dreams and the romance between Bassanio and the headstrong Portia plays throughout.
There were some strong performances from this young company and, in particular, from Mile Eagling as Shylock and Annabel Bates as the wily Portia.
Eagling had the measure of a complicated and emotional man, who is driven and angry, a worried father and committed Jew who is oppressed by his environment.
Audiences of their day would have jeered and wholly supported the character's assault by those in the play that were seen as good and righteous because of their faith. We'd take a different view in today's racially and religiously tolerant climate.
The actor also had a cameo playing a blind pensioner, Old Gobbo, a character that added nothing and was superfluous to the story, but it gave Eagling a few moments to play the fool amid his intense performance as the leading man.
Travelling mummers are often called on for a variety of roles including acting, scene shifting, background music and selling raffle tickets during the interval. The Merchant was no different.
Antonio's Adam Grayson introduced the performance and reappeared as a fellow Jewish money-lender, while Greg Smith and Christopher Coiley played heroic romantic sops Bassanio and Lorenzo as well as providing the comic roles as inappropriate suitors for the lovelorn Portia.
Rosa Glover as Portia's maid, Nerissa, and Adam Diggle as Antonio's servant Lancelot, both needed to project their voices more for the open air environment as, on occasions, their speeches were lost in the wind and competition from overflying planes and church bells.
They were a hard-working company that brought a troubled story and a slice of history to life and, in gratitude, the heavens saved its tempest for the ride home.
Look out for Chapterhouse when they return to the area next year.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Leighton Buzzard
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: East
