The Merchant of Venice at The Norris Center

Portia, the heiress of Belmont, has given her suitors a challenge. The champion will win her hand in marriage, and those who fail stand to lose much more. Bassanio, a young, down-and-out noble, can't enter the challenge without a loan from his friend, Antonio, a wealthy merchant. Antonio, in turn, borrows money from Shylock, a jaded Jewish moneylender, with one caveat: should Antonio fail to repay his debt with money, he will instead pay it with a pound of flesh. Love, intolerance, humor, and mercy are brilliantly woven together in one of Shakespeare's most exacting and divisive plays, performed here in a scaled-down, small cast interpretation.