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The merchant inThe Merchant of Venicehas it tough.
He cares about a jerk who keeps borrowing money.
Hes lost more argosies than youve had hot dinners.
belongs to the man who is, dramaturgically speaking, merely the villain.
Admittedly, the non-Shylock parts ofMerchantare hardly Shakespeares best.
Its all a bit silly.
The plays pale body flushes with blood.
Hath not a Jew eyes?
Shylock asks when someone begs him to stop gunning for Antonio.
If you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
Shylockisthe plays best character.
The comedy evaporates though the comic scenes, now slowed and painful, remain.
But no lightness could thrive in this environment anyway.
(This black hole sometimes functions as a dark moon, sometimes as a window.)
It looks like a slab of Romes EUR district, or a Brutalist buildings side entrance.
But when it comes to the actual playing of scenes … well.
Arbus arranges conversational groups as if shes still adhering to a six-foot social-distancing rule.
Something else gums up the rest of the works is it revulsion?
If anyone is creepy, Arbus shines a light on the creeping so we can all disapprove together.
(Of course, everyone is creepy.)
Choices like these, though, make subsequentscenes difficult to play.
Why isnt this obscene version of Gratiano cold-shouldered by any of his friends?
And this Nerissa woulddefinitelyditch her racist boss.
The production spotlights existing character flaws and, by making them contemporary, creates new ones.
They become a pack of cowards, bigots, and failsons.
So into this nest of snakes comes Shylock.
You see a glimpse of that warm, reliable Thompson when he reaches out to shake Antonios hand.
This warmth makes it doubly awful when he is rebuffed.
Thompson deflates and shrinks back, folding himself up, trying to disappear even at center stage.
Thompsons exhausted performance shows us all of that: the centuries, the sand, the skeleton.
He cannot carry the whole evening on his back.
The Merchant of Veniceis at Theater for a New Audience through March 6.
