The Merchant of Venice 1936

11 November 2023

We saw The Merchant of Venice at Wilton's Music Hall in the east end of London.
I came away with mixed emotions.

We didn't have particularly good seats - we could only see roughly 1/3 of the stage, and the acoustics on the balcony weren't great.
As a result, I didn't know what was going on for most of the first half.

However, I enjoyed the second half more. The ending in particular was powerful, and the courtroom scene was entertaining.

There were a few things I really liked though.

1. The 1936-theme was really well done. It captured the nazi-esque manner of Oswald Mosley and the BUF, and felt especially current given the far-right counter-protestors in London that day.

2. The projection onto the set was excellent. They used it for a huge number of things - newspaper clippings, archive videos, the list goes on.
   It was a really good way of setting the scene, and felt completely in keeping with the rest of the production (which projection doesn't always manage to pull off...)

   

Overall, it was a good production. I expect it would have scored a lot higher had I been able to see or hear it!

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