The Merchant of Venice

Successfully handling Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice and its complex villain Shylock is one of the more daunting tasks in modern theater. The Bard’s intricate web work portraying bitter business machinations, the nature of antisemitism, pursuits of true love and conflicts between mercy and justice provide enough content for a half a dozen plots. A successful staging of Merchant must touch upon all of these facets and somehow link them into a coherent evening of theater. Prize winning director Desdemona Chiang and an outstanding cast more than meet this challenge in their stunning production at Seattle Shakespeare.