Show review: The Merchant of Venice 1936

As a Shakespeare philistine, I had no idea that The Merchant of Venice was where the phrase “pound of flesh” originally came from; nor that it was the first outing of the name Jessica.  (Warning to any Jessicas reading this: the character is a bit of a baddie).

This show is a 20th century-set re-working of the original – as you might have guessed from the ‘1936’ part – but it’s still got those bits in it.  Not to mention a healthy smattering of fascists and racists, but by all accounts it had a few of those in Shakespeare’s one as well.

It’s worth seeing, even if just to remind yourself that there’s actual power in standing against all kinds of rubbish together.  And Tracy-Ann Oberman is all kinds of amazing.