RSC Live at PHHS

RSC LIVE – THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

On 21st April, year 12 and 13 Drama and Theatre Studies students had the opportunity to see ‘The Merchant of Venice’ as part of the Royal Shakespeare’s Live Feed to schools. It seemed fitting to watch this play to pay homage to the 400th year since Shakespeare’s death and the many celebrations that are taking place both locally and nationally.

The favourite highlight was Patsy Ferran playing Portia as her humour and indeed, despair in the casket scenes was super. The portrayal of Shylock was an interesting one with the Israeli Arab actor, Makram J Khoury taking the lead. However, the director Polly Findlay decided to put a different spin on the relationship between Antonio (Jamie Ballard) and Bassino (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) which our students weren’t too sure about. The famous ‘pound of flesh’ trial scene was quite horrifying at one moment and Shylock’s loneliness as the only Jew surrounded by Christians, raised an interesting discussion in the live Q and A session and helped to add some social and historical context to the play.

A large pendulum ball was part of the main set symbolising inevitability and emphasising the point that you can’t stop time or indeed fate. The reflective walls literally mirrored the audience as the director strongly wanted the audience to be part of the experience as a whole and to ‘be in the moment’ as well.

The choral music by Marc Tritschler was beautiful and added a haunting sense to the production and the use of candles in the final scene was truly enchanting.

I would like to thank Mr Dyer for being our technical manager for the morning.

Mrs Cook
(Head of Drama and Theatre Studies)