Wiliam Shakespeare, Anredj Rozman Roza
Merchant of Venice
Ljubljana Puppet Theatre
Crew
Director: Jan Zakonjšek
Visual image: Barbara Bulatović
Music: Nino de Gleria and Jelena Ždrale
Language consultant: Tatjana Stanič
Lighting designer: Danilo Korelec
Producer: Ana Rokvič Pinterič
Stage master and sound engineer: Alojz Sedovnik
Lighting engineer: Danilo Korelec
Stage technician: Alojz Milošič
Stage, puppet and costume makers: Zoran Srdić, Mitja Ritmanič, Sandra Birjukov, Iztok Bobić, Polona Černe, Barbara Bulatović, Brina Fekonja
Cast
Maja Kunšič
Iztok Lužar
Gašper Malnar
Brane Vižintin
About the performance
Original title: Beneški trgovec
baptismal performance
Première: 25 May 2015, Ljubljana Puppet Theatre
The performance brings a comedy with a tinge of darkness in which two stories intertwine. The first one is about the pound of flesh that the heartless Jewish banker Shylock demands of his debtor, the anti-Semitic merchant Antonio. The second focuses on Antonio’s love for the young Bassanio;
Bassanio wants to marry Portia, whose father has left her inheritance on the condition that she acquires a husband via a special lottery. The Ljubljana Puppet Theatre describes in the playbill that since the tragedy that befell the Jewish people during World War II made the character of the Jewish banker Shylock lose any potential comic character, the puppet show now releases him of religious affiliation and moves the events to the present time when the bankers are particularly hated and thus
made for comedic ridicule.
At the same time, the performance exposes, more obviously than the original, the love Antonio feels for Bassanio, and his readiness to give his heart for his beloved. The theatre believes that thus abridged and pared down to its basic elements, The Merchant of Venice becomes primarily a comedy of strong and fatal passions.
The performance will not be shown at the festival because the theatre is on tour abroad.
Photo gallery
