As they do almost every year, Shakespeare’s Globe on Tour are spending a few weeks in July in the Bodleian Quad, giving Oxford a dose of alfresco Shakespeare. This year, however, they’ve added a twist. These travelling players have prepared not one, but three Shakespeare plays, and each evening, they pass the power over to the audience, who choose which show they will watch that evening.
This is a cleverly conceived notion – the set is a simple two-storey structure with doors and windows; the costumes are plain loose-fitting tunics, with scarfs and jackets added to indicate the character. One can see how each play could simply be adapted, although the learning of three plays’ worth of lines is astonishing. The casting is age- and gender-blind, which seems odd for the first few minutes, but actually works extremely well.
I must confess, I had hoped for The Taming of the Shrew, one of my favourites. The other two options were Twelfth Night and The Merchant of Venice – neither of which I know very well. However, when given the choice, the loudest cheers were clearly for The Merchant of Venice, and so the play began.
The Merchant of Venice is billed as a comedy, and I suppose in the classic sense it is, ending in marriage rather than death. However, like most of Shakespeare’s comedies, there is a strong undertone of tragedy, with the merchant, Antonio, finding himself indebted to Shylock, who has been his enemy for many years. Some of the tragedy is found in Antonio’s position, as he begs for his life against his creditor, but as a modern viewer of the play, a lot of the pathos is found in the nuance of Shylock’s character. Shylock is vilified for being a Jew, and certainly is intent in showing no mercy to Antonio, but we do see how cruelly he has been treated in the past by Antonio and his fellow merchants – his hatred of them is hardly surprising. Sarah Finigan is marvellous as Shylock –contained, righteous fury giving way to pitiful remorse in the end, leaving the audience distinctly discomfited.
Shakespeare wouldn’t be Shakespeare without a woman pretending to be a man and being (apparently) unrecognisable to her betrothed. Jacqueline Phillips is an extremely convincing Portia, wearied by her many suitors when she longs only for one man, Brassanio. When she makes her match with Brassanio, and then they are forced to part, Portia and her maid, Nerissa, take steps to help her fiancé so they can be together. It seems strange that the tale purports to be about the merchant, when actually he is more of a plot device, while the nuanced (and much more interesting) characters are the women and Shylock.
As usual, the members of this troop are proficient musicians, weaving songs and tunes through the narrative beautifully and unobtrusively. The audience is drawn into the story inexorably, and by the end of the play, it’s hard to believe that you haven’t just spent an evening under a Venetian sky. The Oxford run is until 29th July, and I would highly recommend it, particularly in the current run of good weather (although, cunningly, they’ll probably try to tempt you back for another two evenings, so you can see the other two plays). ★★★★☆ @BookingAround 20th July 2018
