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Mitchelstown CBS Second Year english students, who attended the performance of the Shakesperian classic “Merchant of Venice” at the Everyman in Cork recently.

Second year students from CBS Mitchelstown were recently enthralled by a performance of the Shakespearean classic, 'The Merchant of Venice'.

Student Richard Maher won a school competition for his arresting review of the play, a play which he described as 'one of Shakespeare's most enduring classics'.

On Tuesday, November 12, I, along with my classmates, got the opportunity to see an educational adaptation of Shakespeare's 'The Merchant of Venice' in the Everyman Theatre, which is, of course, the play that we in the CBS Mitchelstown are studying for our Junior Cert.

This adaptation, however, was Shakespeare with a difference as the play itself was frequently stopped to interact with the audience and ask questions about characters, themes, relationships and much more. Our very own Patrick Griffin was plucked from the assemblage to play the golden casket, a part he handled with aplomb, showing great confidence and self assurance, he even did an entertaining little dance for us while on stage.

The play had only four actors, but each player knew their characters very well indeed and was highly skilled in their depiction of each. The play focused on two main themes: love and prejudice and revolved around four main characters: Bassanio, Antonio, Portia and Shylock.

The play was highly educational and the frequent pauses to tell us what things meant in our own vernacular really helped me to comprehend certain aspects of the play more clearly. There were also hilarious modern interjections, one of these being when Bassanio got a loan to court Portia was compared to 'needing money to get a beour”; the audience was in stitches.

There were an abundance of positive elements to the play: the quality of acting, the engaging way in which the play was presented to the audience, the use of Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter (which made some of the quotes very easy to remember); the way in which this adaptation made 'The Merchant of Venice' a comedy as opposed to a horrific tale of anti-Semitism and so forth. The positive light in which 'the Merchant of Venice' was portrayed helped the audience to take a new perspective on the play, I certainly know I did.

However, there were some negative elements in this production. For example, the character of Shylock, I felt, should have been played with more venom, hate and sadness, so as to emphasise the fact that he had lost everything; everything he cared for in the world was gone, in short, to show that he was in the depths of despair.

Furthermore, the court scene (act four) should have been played with more intensity, and with stronger emotion as in this production, it seemed like Antonio didn't care about getting killed or losing his friends. This should not be the case as, in my opinion, this act should be a high-octane, emotionally charged affair, with Bassanio and Antonio saying their goodbyes, showing the true extent of their friendship (or possibly something more), building up until Portia came and saved the day.

In this production it seemed a bit unrealistic, as Antonio was cracking jokes a second before he was meant to be killed. Finally, a better stage background would have made the play much more realistic as you wouldn't be wondering 'where is this scene taking place?' or 'who are these characters?'

To conclude, however, overall, I found this adaptation of 'The Merchant of Venice' to be very interesting, well-acted and thoroughly enjoyable, I would whole-heartedly recommend it to any student as an aid to their studies as it really helps you to form a new perspective on the play.

If I was an adult, however and wanted to see a truly realistic portrayal of life for Antonio, Bassanio and co, I would attend a larger scale production.

In saying that, I truly believe the goal for this production of 'The Merchant of Venice' was aimed towards students and helping their understanding and that is a goal in which this production succeeds admirably in.

By Richard Maher

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