The Merchant of Venice play. I watched it on Saturday, and it was a definitely an interesting rendition. But I definitely thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved how they incorporated the kids into the play. The play is intense, because of the themes it covers (justice vs. mercy, racism/discrimination, etc.) and yet the theatre group made it appealing to the kids and made it interactive. A lot of the text was lost because it was a very short production and it had to be kid friendly, but overall I approve of it.
One thing that I liked was how at the end they asked about the treatment of Shylock and Antonia. Was it fair that Shylock had to become a "tharian" and give up his belongings, whilst Antonia got to keep her life and have say over half his belongings? Even though the play was fun and exciting, they still approached a deeper topic to get the kids to think, along with the adults that were watching. It definitely got me to thinking about my life, moreso than I think the actual reading of the play did. The visual effect of actually watching it helped. I got to thinking about the balance of justice vs. mercy, more specifically related to the Atonement.
I thought it was interesting that the group portrayed Antonio as a girl, changing the character to Antonia. I was kind of thinking it might be because they were short on guys and they thought of the characters to change, that one would work the best. But I also thought it maybe showed the friendship of Bassanio and Antonio pretty well. It created a friendship that the kids were maybe able to understand more visually than a guy/guy friendship. Especially with the line "But life itself, my wife, and all the world,/are not with me esteem'd above thy life:/ I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all/here to this devil, to delivery you." To me, just nowadays, it's more comprehensive to the kids than a bromance, if you will.
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