The Shylock Play

What happens when a 78 year old woman, who was an escapee from the Warsaw Ghetto, visits the present day Venice Ghetto and meets a group of actors performing The Merchant of Venice? This play within a play is the starting point for a new perspective on The Merchant of Venice from writer/director Julia Pascal. Using much of the original text inter-cut with new scenes, which add to the back-story of Shylock and Jessica, it is a contemporary exploration opening up issues of anti-Semitism previously unstaged. This is a radical new adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s most controversial plays.