The Merchant of Venice at The Shakespeare
By Randy Shulman
on
July 3, 2011
Ethan McSweeney directs The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare’s compelling look at human nature and the insidious nature of power, justice and revenge. The Shakespeare Theatre Company stages it for the first time in more than a decade. To July 24. Sidney Harman Hall, Harman Center for the Arts, 610 F St. NW. Tickets are $20 to $98. Call 202-547-1122 or visit shakespearetheatre.org.
Stages are alight this Spring with a deluge of exciting productions -- some starry, as in the case of The Shakespeare Theatre's Uncle Vanya featuring Hugh Bonneville, equally beloved in Downton Abbey and the joyous Paddington films.
The beauty of theater -- and in all these inventive, upcoming works -- is that it serves up various points of view with drama, wit, and intellect often concealed under the guise of boisterous entertainment. At its best, theater quenches our thirst for a deeper connection to our fellow human beings. At its worst, it's Cats. Still, theater sometimes gives you a musical moment that makes your spirits soar.
There are many ways to skin the Chekhov cat. There is everything from word-for-word renderings to more imaginative riffs such as Aaron Posner's wildly beautiful Stupid F***king Bird. What unites them all is Chekhov's unstoppable relevance; his uncanny ability to touch a variety of universal nerves.
In the mood for soul-eroding ennui, being smart enough to know what you should be doing and not doing it, and the comic frustration of intertwined lives? Chekhov's your man.
Simon Godwin walks his own attractively clever line here, delivering an Uncle Vanya, adapted by noted Irish playwright Conor McPherson, that arrives like a finely marbled steak. The increasingly fraught family dynamic is fully and meatily intact, but it is streaked with a modern sensibility.
Hugh Bonneville and I, at this moment in time, are waxing rhapsodic over the music of Downton Abbey. I've confided to the British actor that I am obsessed with the sumptuous, lush score to the point where I listen to little else for days on end.
"John Lunn," Bonneville smiles. "He's a lovely Scottish composer and a dear man. That music is just -- when you just hear those opening bars, it just gets you into a certain mood."
That certain mood will return in the fall as Julian Fellowes's extraordinary creation, in which Bonneville plays Lord Grantham, the head of the titular estate, will take its final bow with a third and final film, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale.
