The Merchant of Venice(Pseudo Performance Review)

Ever wander into a theatre or cinema and wish it wasn't so unreasonably cold? Turns out the chills aren't without reason, after all: after a few days of insufficient sleep, I went to an 8 p.m. performance of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and had a dreadful time staying awake. It was dark... it was warm (but not too warm)... and the play was three hours long.

I caught Washington (also sleep-deprived) napping next to me, and two seats over my friend's girlfriend was also struggling with Morpheus. The worst of it was, the performance was actually quite compelling, and Merchant happens to be one of my favorites from the Bard (primarily because I "taught" it in a grad school class, which forced me to be more familiar with the material). I'd been looking forward to this play for weeks, but couldn't give it the attention it deserved.

In short: five actors from the London Stage played about 20 different characters. The set consisted of six chairs, a table, three boxes ("caskets") and a suitcase. It was minimalist, to say the least, and confusing at times (my groggy state made it all the more difficult to keep up when an actor or actress changed roles by simply donning sunglasses, a hat or the like). The acoustics were also a bit lacking, which encouraged my wanning attention span.

I was ashamed to be in such a state, as I had a sense the performance was actually quite good — acoustics aside. Shylock was just as sympathetic as I like him to be (I'm not fond of renditions that have him bemoaning the loss of his ducats without giving due attention to the agony brought upon by his missing daughter), and having so few players take on so many roles was fairly ingenious.

It's a pity I wasn't able to enjoy it as thoroughly as I otherwise may have.