Shore Shakespeare Company is proud to present
William Shakespeare’s
The Merchant of Venice
Augst 30th & 31st at 6:00pm
Long Wharf Park
Cambridge, Maryland
September 6th & 7th at 6:00pm
September 8th at 5:00pm
The Oxford Community Center
Oxford, Maryland
September 13th & 14th at 6:00pm
The Centreville Wharf
Centreville, Maryland
All performances are FREE and open to the public. More information may be found at the Company’s website, www.shoreshakespeare.com
We invite you to experience William Shakespeare’s most controversial, most problematic and, perhaps, most modern play: The Merchant of Venice.
What should contemporary audiences make of a work whose characters and issues have been debated by audiences, scholars, critics, directors, and actors for over four hundred years? Considered both a romantic comedy and a “problem play,” The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare’s most controversial works. Set in 16th Century Venice, it is on the surface a romantic comedy featuring a love tested by obstacles placed in the path of the lovers. The play also examines the darker themes of intolerance, tribalism, betrayal and revenge – personified in the characters Antonio, a Christian merchant, and Shylock, a Jewish moneylender. As the two plotlines weave together, nothing in The Merchant of Venice is quite what it seems to be.
The company’s production showcases a strong and talented cast including company co-founders Avra Sullivan as Portia and Christian Rogers as Antonio, Brian McGunigle as Shylock, Max Hagan as Bassiano, and featuring Howard Messick, Jackie Royer, Li Wojehowski, Troy Strootman, Paul Briggs, Samantha Davis, Josh Hansen, John Feldman, Deanna van Skiver, and Jane and John Tereby. The production is co-directed by Chris Rogers and Jaunita Wieczoreck, with costume design by Barbi Bedell and tech support by Hope Dorman.
Whatever you think you already know about the play, this production will challenge your assumptions and defy your expectations. The Merchant of Venice, in the words of Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro, “scrapes against a bedrock of beliefs about the racial, national, sexual and religious difference of others. I can think of no other literary work that does so as unrelentingly and honestly.” So honestly that it should be noted that the text contains language that some may find offensive.