The relationship between Coryse Borg and Philip Leone Ganado is not an easy one to fathom.The relationship between Coryse Borg and Philip Leone Ganado is not an easy one to fathom.

Theatre
The Merchant of Venice
San Anton Gardens

It has been over 20 years since MADC last put up The Merchant of Venice at San Anton Gardens as their traditional annual Shakespeare production; and a new airing of one of the Bard’s best crafted and nuanced comedies was long overdue.

This month’s offering, directed by Joe Friggieri and running till today, has breathed new life into the piece by reducing the scenery to the simplicity of the gardens’ pretty natural background, giving it a contemporary twist with modern dress and truly focusing on the beauty of the language and the Elizabethan textual imagery.

Generous Venetian merchant Antonio (Michael Mangion) is surrounded by many friends, none dearer or more loyal to him than Bassanio (Philip Leone Ganado), but has made one enemy due to his high Christian morals, which disapprove of Shylock the Jew’s way of doing business through usury.

Mangion’s reserved and stately Antonio created a solid balance in contrast to Leone Ganado’s less restrained and more ebullient Bassanio, who pleads with his friend for financial help in his suit to win the hand of Portia (Coryse Borg); leading Antonio to find himself pressed to borrow money from Manuel Cauchi’s Shylock to aid his friend.

Cauchi’s fine interpretation of, arguably, one of the most famous Jews in literature left the audience suitably impressed with his measured and naturalistic interpretation of a character whose complex personality takes him beyond the taxonomy of mere antagonist and into the league of multi-faceted, canonical greats.

Poised, passionate, calculating and desperate, Shylock is a joy to analyse and to portray – a fact that Cauchi did not miss – and neither did Borg in the equally strong and witty interpretation which she gave as the noble and highly intelligent Portia. She is a spirited and independent woman who is bound by law to her father’s will in terms of whom she is to marry. The fact that this play engages with interfaith and intercultural conflict, anti-Semitism and has a highly feminist slant to it, makes it thematically avant-garde and a testament to Shakespeare’s ability to present his audience with material which is still highly relevant to contemporary society.

What I particularly enjoyed about this performance was that the diction and clarity of the entire cast was crisp and coherent, with adequate importance given to phrasing and tonal interpretation of the lines, which took on their intended conversational role rather than the stilted recitation they are often forced into.

The production breathed new life into the piece by reducing the scenery to the simplicity of the gardens’ pretty natural background

Antonio’s friends, Salerio (Luke Mercieca) and Solanio (John Marinelli) maintained their individuality and were not overshadowed by the more plot-connected roles of the energetic Steve Hili’s raucous Gratiano and Alex Gatesy Lewis’s romantic Lorenzo – both of whom gave their characters flair and cheek in the subplots with their respective love interests – Francesca Briffa’s coy and flirty Nerissa, Portia’s aide and right-hand woman and Annelise Abela’s rebellious Jessica. The latter defies her father Shylock and elopes with a Christian, substituting filial duty and obedience in favour of following her heart.

Indeed, the female characters in this play were conceived of as strong and forthright, and sadly shackled by the legal and social conventions and constraints of the time, which their wit and good sense allow them to thwart and manipulate to their advantage.

Portia’s lot seems particularly harsh when it comes to her father’s will in selecting a husband for his daughter by means of the three caskets: leaving her no free will at the expense of his legal one. Her ability and competence in interpreting legal matters emerges when she and Nerissa, disguised as young lawyers, save Antonio’s life from Shylock’s demands for a pound of flesh as forfeit for Antonio’s debt, on a clever technicality in a very slick and rhythmically sound court scene.

The ludic element in the play comes from the Gobbo father-and-son duo – Launcelot Gobbo (David Chircop) and Old Gobbo (Chris Spiteri), whose interaction was refreshingly light, with Chircop cajoling and confounding the various other characters he dealt with, making Launcelot a loveable rogue. The casket scenes also offered a good source of fun by caricaturing regional stereotypes with Joe Depasquale’s pompous, self-assured scimitar swinging Prince of Morocco losing face and leaving in disgrace, while Joe Zammit’s petulant, vain and frivolous Prince of Aragon was a campy Spaniard who exposed his foolishness in the most enjoyable of the comic performances.

With a strong cast and a clear vision, The Merchant of Venice was a good evening out and made for a notably pleasant Shakespearean production which was just what a summer evening at San Anton Gardens warranted.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.