THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. To 11 October.
Bolton.
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
by William Shakespeare.
Octagon Theatre To 11 October 2008.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm at 4, 8Oct 2pm 1 Oct 1.30pm.
Audio-described 8 Oct 7.30pm.
BSL Signed 9 Oct.
Runs 2hr 35min One interval.
TICKETS: 01204 520661.
www.octagonbolton.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 23 September.
Generally good news from the Rialto.
Fresh from its triumphant Ruby Anniversary season Bolton’s Octagon starts year 41 with artistic director Mark Babych taking on Shakespeare. It’s a challenge; many otherwise successful actors fall down when it comes to finding the suppleness and sense of form involved in classical verse.
Yet, if the Octagon’s not at the tip of its top form here, with patches of indifferent verse-speaking and some points not fully registering in a pruned script, this remains a rewarding experience. The main omission is Shylock’s initial relationship with his daughter. For Catherine Kinsella’s Jessica goes on to explore the massive leap from the Jewish ghetto to mainstream Christian society.
The agony of David Fielder’s lost court case emerges physically in his howls of pain. But such agony has also been heard, more intensely, over his lost daughter. And both halves end showing Jessica perplexed in her new world, her husband’s peremptory manner a weak basis for their world-without-end bargain.
Wyllie Longmore’s gravely authoritative Antonio remains alone, literally sidelined on stage at the end, but it’s Jessica who’s central, and it’s easy to like Babych’s shift of Portia’s speech to her as the final lines; an invitation which receives no response.
It’s a fitting final pairing for Portia’s also made a transition, to male lawyer in Venice (Brent Lees’ lighting points up the contrast between golden Belmont and gloomily watery Venice on Tom Scutt’s usefully neutral setting). Emily Pithon’s too gestural at home, but magnificent in disguise, catching male manners, stance and bearing. And her active intelligence as a man contrasts her anxiety at home, seated formally and anxiously, awaiting her fate at each casket session.
Fielder’s Shylock (first seen in an art gallery, a cultured man) looks rougher than the business-suited Venetian businessmen whose mobiles and texting suggest a modern pace of life which makes Antonio’s trading fortunes seem more likely (who can find argosies lost then restored unbelievable in a week when the stock-market’s nose-dived then soared within days?). Only Launcelot Gobbo’s specific reference to a “credit crunch”, as he scavenges wheelie-bins, is a jar too far in this overall attractive production.
Antonio: Wyllie Longmore.
Salerio/Prince of Morocco: Daniel Poyser.
Solanio/Tubal/Prince of Aragon/Duke of Venice/Jailer: David Hobbs.
Bassanio: Paul Barnhill.
Lorenzo: Neil Madden.
Gratiano: Simeon Truby.
Portia: Emily Pithon.
Nerissa: Jenny Platt.
Shylock: David Fielder.
Launcelot Gobbo: Paul Simpson.
Jessica: Catherine Kinsella.
Director: Mark Babych.
Designer: Tom Scutt.
Lighting: Brent Lees.
Sound: Andy Smith.
2008-09-25 12:30:18