Actors' Shakespeare Project Presents THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

Actors' Shakespeare Project (ASP) continues its 16th season with The Merchant of Venice, performed at the Plaza Theatre, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA. Performances run March 11-April 5, 2020.

ASP is delighted to continue its spring partnership with the BCA after staging Bright Half Life at the Plaza last month. Moving from a contemporary piece to a Shakespeare title in the same space allows the company to flex its artistic and aesthetic muscles.

ASP's first and only other production of The Merchant of Venice was twelve years ago in 2008, directed by Melia Bensussen at Midway Studios, Fort Point Channel. Much has changed in both our social and political climates in that short time. The title has always been provocative, but in today's world, some believe that the anti-Semitism contained in the piece needs to be curbed, contained, or that the play should simply not be produced. ASP takes a different tack with this version. Theatrical forms such as commedia and mask are used to definitively acknowledge the racism inherent in the play, exploring the ways human beings continue to reinforce social hierarchy. Igor Golyak, award-winning Arlekin Players Artistic Director, directs. Golyak unites his Russian-based imaginative approach to theatre with ASP's desire to make Shakespeare relevant here and now.

"The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare's masterpieces - especially as it applies to the themes of justice and mercy and the character of Shylock," says ASP Artistic Director Chris Edwards. "Shylock has been canonized in literature as the epitome of the antagonizing foil bent on revenge, with an added touch of uncertainty as to whether he is actually a villain...or a victim. This enigma makes for a great story and great theatre."

Director Igor Golyak says, "Anti-Semitism was rife in Elizabethan England. Londoners of the time viewed Shylock as a natural-born villain. 350 years later, the Nazis used The Merchant of Venice as justification for the horrific death camps of World War II. With anti-Semitism on the rise again in the world today, this play becomes more and more relevant to the current moment. It touches me deeply on a personal level. We are staging this play to provoke and challenge the modern audience member, to ask questions about what humanity is capable of, as well as to seek answers to these questions from each other."