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Globe's visiting 'Merchant of Venice' emphasizes pain of bigotry

The international tour of "The Merchant of Venice" by Shakespeare's Globe long ago sold out its 13-performance run at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. So don't be surprised if ticket scalpers demand "a pound of flesh" to snag a seat.

This "Merchant of Venice" tour electrically stars two-time Tony Award-winner Jonathan Pryce ("Miss Saigon," "Comedians") as the exacting Jewish moneylender Shylock. Without question, it's a pinnacle of the city's yearlong Shakespeare 400 Chicago celebration. There's also a family tie since Pryce's daughter, Phoebe Pryce, stars as Shylock's rebellious daughter Jessica.

"The Merchant of Venice" carries a reputation as a "problem play" in the canon of Shakespeare's works. Yet nowadays it's more for the unsettling anti-Semitism found in the text rather than the severe tonal shifts between comedy and drama that troubled early Shakespeare scholars.

Director Jonathan Munby, who recently directed Shakespeare's other great Venice-set play "Othello" for CST, pushes plenty of disturbing buttons with "The Merchant of Venice." Instances of anti-Semitism are explicitly underlined with Munby also adding in physical bouts of street violence with fight director Kate Waters and a fraught epilogue of a forced Christian conversion.

Within such a hostile environment for the play's Jewish characters, Munby and Pryce elicit plenty of sympathy for Shylock - even though his character demands a grisly reward for an unpaid debt from the titular merchant Antonio (a stoical Dominic Mafham), who rather unwisely borrowed 3,000 ducats to loan to the fortune hunter Bassanio (a strapping Dan Fredenburgh).

As the play's heroine Portia, Rachel Pickup creates a dignified portrayal of a resourceful woman whose quick thinking (and brave gender illusions) ultimately save the day in court. Early on she dreads marriage to a stream of suitors (Giles Terera and Christopher Logan doing exaggerated bits of comic relief), who brave a selection test left by her late father. She's also notably supported by Dorothea Myer-Bennett as the servant Nerissa, whose offhand reactions are hysterical.

Designer Mike Brittons' sumptuous costumes are emblematic of Shakespeare's Globe and the theater's strong history of traditional productions, while his dark wood sets simply frame the production.

If there's one misstep, it's Munby's decision to constantly bathe the stage in showers of omnipresent mist and fog - something probably beyond his control when the production originally played outdoors at the recreated Globe Theatre in London. "The Merchant of Venice" may be an ominous and morally uncomfortable work to contemplate, but all that visible moisture suggests that you're in rainy England rather than in Venice.

Once this tour finishes its Windy City run, it will journey on to China and end in the play's title city. Chicago-area ticket holders should consider themselves lucky to see this quality British production before it moves on.

Tony Award-winner Jonathan Pryce stars as Shylock opposite his real-life daughter, Phoebe Pryce as Jessica, in London's Shakespeare's Globe tour of “The Merchant of Venice,” now playing at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater through Sunday, Aug. 14. Courtesy of Marc Brenner
Rachel Pickup stars as Portia in the Shakespeare's Globe tour of “The Merchant of Venice,” now playing at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater through Sunday, Aug. 14. Courtesy of Marc Brenner

“The Merchant of Venice”

★ ★ ★ ½

Location: Shakespeare's Globe at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 E. Grand Ave., Chicago, (312) 595-5600,

chicagoshakes.com

Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, Aug. 9 to 12 (also 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 10), 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 13, 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 14

Running time: About two hours and 45 minutes, with an intermission

Tickets: sold out

Parking: Nearby pay garage (discounted with theater validation)

Rating: For teenagers and older

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