The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The prose season of the Municipal Theater of Ferrara opens on Friday 7 October with The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare with Franco Branciaroli. The show, on stage 7 and 8 October at 8.30 pm and Sunday 9 October at 4 pmhe made his debut at the theater in Ferrara, after the summer preview at the Shakespearean Festival in Verona.
With powerful universal themes, The Merchant of Venice (represented for the first time in London in 1598) poses stringent and very topical questions: ethical clashes, social and interreligious relationships never pacified, love, hatred, the value of friendship and loyalty, greed, the role of money. Paolo Valerio signs the refined staging in which Shylock – masterfully played by Franco Branciaroli (for the first time in this role) – is the charismatic protagonist of a changing and vibrant world of characters, who embody restlessness, chiaroscuro and complexity of an absolute modernity. The show is produced by the Teatro Stabile del Friuli Venezia Giulia together with the Bresciano Theater Center and the Gli Incamminati Theater.
A multifaceted, mysterious figure, cruel in his thirst for revenge, Shylock displaces them, also arousing their compassion. Antonio, a rich Venetian merchant, turns to him, a Jew, a usurer, who, despite having engaged his assets in risky trades, does not hesitate to act as guarantor for his friend Bassanio who needs three thousand ducats to arm a ship and reach Belmonte, where he hopes to change his own destiny. Shylock, has a hatred towards the gentle thirst for revenge for contempt that seem to him, imposes a ruthless obligation. If the sum is not returned, he will demand a pound of Antony’s flesh, cut close to his heart. Parallel to the agreed framework that Antonio subscribes to, he evolves other lines of the plot, creating an architecturaturgic of symmetries and specularity. There is the dimension of Belmonte, a sort of Arcadia where the noble Portia, obeying the will of her father, will grant herself in marriage only to the suitor who will solve an enigma, the right one among three chests. In the same way, Jessica, Shylock’s beautiful daughter, acts in the opposite direction, who instead betraying her paternal aspirations, joins a Christian and escapes by stealing a ring that belonged to her mother. And if Porzia and Bassanio decline their love in a more popular but symmetrical “high” way, the relationship between his friend – Graziano – and Nerissa, Porzia’s trusted maid, appears. She will be the very intelligent lady “en travesti” to intervene as a lawyer in defense of Antonio, when the latter – having lost his ships – will find himself in a position to pay the bloody obligation to Shylock. With witty arguments she will save his life, punish the vindictive fury of the moneylender, ensure substance and future for Jessica even managing to reproach her husband Bassanio for her lack of constancy.
“On the one hand there is Shylock’s bloody cannibalism, and on the other, apparently, a Christian martyr: however, this Christian, as soon as he descends from his cross, as a first action forces the Jew to conversion, effectively imposing on him the body of Christ – explains Paolo Valerio in the director’s notes -. Nothing obliges Antonio to make this choice: it is his will, his request to the Doge, a request for terrible violence. But in the imagination of the people it is the “pound of flesh” that remains impressed, and instead the inhuman choice of the merchant slips away, hitherto outlined as a free man, more or less enlightened, generous … And who instead reveals a vindictive side , an imposing attitude that refers rather to the obscurantism of the inquisition. Shylock, faced with such an act, could in turn immolate himself, say “no, kill me”. Instead to survive he says “I accept”: this is the real defeat of him. He remains an outcast, a violent and becomes a loser, deprived not only of his horrible obligation, and of money, but above all of his dignity ”. And Paolo Valerio continues: “Shakespeare leaves him like this: he leaves the scene” softly “in the fourth act, dedicating the fifth to the dimension of the enchantment and fun of Belmonte, to the celebration of a feminine, luminous, intuitive and salvific universe, as it often is in his dramaturgy. But the figure of the Jew and his dialectic with the merchant are so central, so powerful and universal, that we have chosen to highlight them, opening and closing our show with an appearance of Shylock, who in the last scene lives in front of them. in our eyes the brutality of an imposed conversion ”.
On stage, in addition to Franco Branciaroli, also Piergiorgio Fasolo (Antonio), Francesco Migliaccio (Salerio / Doge), Emanuele Fortunati (Solanio / Prince of Morocco), Stefano Scandaletti (Bassanio), Lorenzo Guadalupi (Lorenzo), Giulio Cancelli (Graziano / Prince of Aragona), Valentina Violo (Porzia), Dalila Reas (Nerissa), Mauro Malinverno (Lancelot / Tubal) and Mersila Sokoli (Jessica). Translation by Masolino D’Amico, direction and adaptation by Paolo Valerio, scenes by Marta Crisolini Malatesta, costumes by Stefano Nicolao, lights by Gigi Saccomandi, music by Antonio Di Pofi and stage movements by Monica Codena.