BWW Reviews: Baron's Men Presents a Mediocre MERCHANT OF VENICE

While Shakespeare's comedy The Merchant of Venice is not considered by all as one of his "problem plays," there are certainly many aspects about it that are problematic, namely its length and the latent anti-Semitism apparent in the text. These problems and more must be addressed for a production of the play to succeed. Sadly, as skilled as The Baron's Men are at bringing the Bard to life, they struggle with their current production of The Merchant of Venice, now playing Austin's Curtain Theater.

The problematic comedy follows the merchant, Antonio, who borrows money from the Jewish money-lender, Shylock, to help his friend, Bassanio, secure Portia's hand in marriage. Shylock agrees to lend Antonio the money but stipulates that he may take a pound of Antonio's flesh if he does not repay the debt. Comedy, albeit with heaps of anti-semitism, ensues.

While the production has several flaws, it has many attributes as well. Rodrigo Barajas takes a simple approach with his set, but it is appealing and easily sets the Venetian scene, and the costume design
(which sadly is unattributed in the program) is incredibly detailed and stunning.

A few of the performers succeed as well. As Shylock's servant Launcelot, Eva McQuade is an unquestioned crowd-pleaser. She milks every moment to brilliant comedic effect, and while she may be small in stature, her performance fills the Curtain Theater. Andreas Stein is likewise a comedic master, particularly when playing the foppish and extravagant Prince of Aragon. And as the leading character of Shylock, Robert Deike bristles with intensity and is pointedly focused on revenge. Sadly, his accent is largely distracting. While Shylock inhabits 1500s Venice, his anachronistic accent is definitively Russian immigrant Jew in turn-of-the-century New York.

The puzzling accent work continues with some other performers. Rachel Steed Redig also gives us an accent that's tough to understand and pin down, and the rest of the cast give adequate but unmemorable performances.

The bulk of the problems in the production are due to director Christina Peppas. As has been said about Shakespeare time and time again, the magic of his work comes out of the language, and the text must take center stage. However, Peppas prefers to upstage Shakespeare's words by punctuating many of the lines with unnecessary and attention-pulling physical punctuation and shtick. She also stages many important exchanges between characters with one of them facing out towards the audience rather than engaging with the person to which they are speaking, making it difficult to believe their interaction. Peppas also fails to answer the Shylock problem. Shylock can be played as either anti-hero or villain, and here, despite a prologue in which Antonio spits on Shylock's face, the production doesn't make a definitive decision as to how Shylock fits into the piece. And with its 2 hour and 45 minute running time, this production certainly has a bit of a pacing problem.

Despite strong work by the design team and a couple of supporting players, The Baron's Men 's current production of The Merchant of Venice doesn't quite live up to the expectations set by their previous productions. Still, given the incredible work they showed with October's original piece Medieval Macabre and their incredible and unparalleled attention to detail and Elizabethan theatrical traditions and conventions, this so-so production will likely be eclipsed and forgotten by their almost certain future successes.

Photo: Bradley Wright (L) as Bassanio and Robert Deike (R) as Shylock in THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.

Running time: Approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes, including one 15 minute intermission.

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE plays The Curtain Theater at 7400 Coldwater Canyon Dr., Austin, TX, 78730 now thru April 27^th. Performances are Thursday thru Saturday at 8pm. Tickets are $10 on Thursdays and $15 on Fridays and Saturdays.

NOTE: The Curtain Theater is an outside, open-air venue. Please dress accordingly.

For tickets and information, please visit www.thebaronsmen.org

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