The Merchant of Venice - Greenwich Playhouse
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
THE GALLEON Theatre Company is presenting Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice at Greenwich Playhouse – from February 12 to March 9, 2008.
The plot revolves around Shylock, a Jewish moneylender who demands “a pound of flesh” when a large loan cannot be re-paid.
Shakespeare’s pertinent and greatly esteemed classic is described as charmingly romantic and provocatively entwined with the dark foibles of human behaviour. The psychologically complex characters are not only capable of charm and generosity of spirit but also of reprehensible callousness.
The production will make audiences reflect on the contemporary social problems of religious and racial hatred, greed and revenge, as well as the ever healing potency of love.
Bruce Jamieson directs a cast that includes Al Fiorentini (as Shylock) whose theatre credits include God of Vengeance, A View from the Bridge and Barefoot in the Park. On screen, he has appeared in Man and Boy, Clubland, Ellis Island, Don’t Wait Up, Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Boon, The People’s Princess, A Tribute (TV); and If It’s Tuesday It Still Must Be Belgium and Loser Takes All (film).
Fiorentini will be joined by Eve-Marie Akers, Gabriel Butler-Lewis, Claire Chate, Ashley David, Holly Hinton, Nicolas John, Nicholas Karpenko, Lachlan McCall, Robert Paul, Stephanie Thomas and Richard Unwin.
Jamieson has previously directed over 20 Galleon productions and played leading roles in some 60 stage plays. As an actor, his television and film credits include the forthcoming feature film The Oxford Murders (with John Hurt and Elijah Wood); Murphy’s Law, Monarch of the Glen, Ali G-Inda House, Roughnecks and Crime Solver.
The Merchant of Venice is produced by Alice De Sousa, with costume design by Kate Kenward, scenery design by Hilary Statts and lighting design by Robert Gooch.
Tickets: £12, £9 concessions.
Times: Tuesday to Saturday – 7.30pm; Sunday – 4pm.
For more information call the box office on 020 8858 9256 or visit the website.
You might be interested to know that Alice de Sousa, Artistic Director of Greenwich Playhouse, is still waging battle with the local authority to secure funding recognition for the immeasurable contribution that the theatre makes to the cultural infrastructure of the borough. But as she explained:
“It is the narrowly conceived view of Greenwich arts policy makers that there is room for only one theatre in this vast London borough; and needless to say that is not the Greenwich Playhouse! This position is crippling the development of my theatre and has remained unchanged since 1995, when I took artistic direction of the venue. Moreover, it serves to decimate our chances of raising funding either at local or central authority level.”