Photos: In Rehearsal For THE MERCHANT OF VENICE 1936 At Watford Palace Theatre

See photos from inside rehearsal for The Merchant of Venice (1936) at Watford Palace Theatre, 27 February - 11 March 2023.

Joining Tracy-Ann Oberman in her portrayal of Shylock, Hannah Morrish plays Portia. An award-winning Shakespearean actress, Hannah is perhaps best known for her Octavia in Antony and Cleopatra at the National Theatre and her Lavinia in Titus Andronicus at the RSC. She was involved in workshop development of the project at the RSC earlier this year with Raymond Coulthard, who also joins the production as Antonio, his numerous television credits include regulars in Mr Selfridge and Hotel Babylon as well as an extensive career on the stage at the RSC, National Theatre, Donmar Warehouse amongst numerous others.

Continuing a legacy of championing recent graduates and rising stars, Gráinne Dromgoole, Priyank Morjaria and Xavier Starr join the team, all of whom graduated in the last three years.

Completing the cast are Adam Buchanan (Pride and Prejudice, Sheffield Crucible) and Jessica Dennis (Twelfth Night, Romeo + Juliet, The Orange Tree Theatre).

By presenting Shylock as a woman and placing the action in London in 1936 this production offers a rare and vivid insight into a dark chapter in our history, all too relevant to Britain today. Fascism is sweeping across Europe, and Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists threatens a paramilitary march through the Jewish East End. Shylock, a widowed survivor of anti-Semitic pogroms in Russia, hopes to give her daughter Jessica a better life. She runs a pawnbroking business from her house in Cable Street where Mosley will march. Charismatic heroine Portia and the Merchant himself, Antonio, are aristocratic Mosleyites, their playground is piano bars at the Ritz, bias cut silk gowns, white tie and tails. It's a vivid evocation of our history, and a warning for our times.

Photo Credit: Marc Brenner

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