Theater review

When Portia enters the courtroom where Shylock is prepared to carve a pound of flesh from the breast of Antonio, she asks, “Which is the merchant here and which is the Jew?” It is a most disturbing question in one of Shakespeare’s most unsettling comedies, “The Merchant of Venice,” playing through August at the Theater at Monmouth.

Recent revivals of this play have emphasized that Portia’s question remains timeless. For Monmouth director Ted Davis, this means setting the play in fascist Italy where the totalitarian stronghold was the overpowering ideology. The comparison, however, is only mildy effective. Fascism denigrates the values of capitalism, and “Merchant” leaves open the possibility that capitalism is a sound way of life.

The Monmouth production attempts to present elements of fascism and Nazism, but the effort is too haphazardly interspersed with a flapper decor and raucous slapstick to be consistently effective. In a surprising final scene, Jessica (Shylock’s daughter) falls victim to the anti-Semite forces. It is an unjustified moment of melodrama, one for which we have not been prepared.

There are many moments in this production that are disappointing, however. For a professional company, the Monmouth troupe lacks a certain sophistication necessary for a successful Shakespeare play. The depth of the relationships between Bassanio (Steve Marvel) and Antonio (Michael O’Brien), Portia (Lillian Dean) and Nerissa (Jewel Davis), and Portia and Bassanio are crucial, and this production never really makes the connections clearly.

Portia and Nerissa are, in fact, trivialized as giggling and airheaded, which is not an easy task considering Portia is one of Shakespeare’s most cunning characters. Dean and Davis go for every theater cliche available, and the result is a shallow performance.

Benjamin Chelsea as Gobbo offers an entertaining performance, and Eddie Lee Murphy as the Prince of Morocco elicits some deserved laughs.

The greater glory doth dim the lesser, however, and James Walker’s performance of Shylock is a shining good deed in an otherwise dull world. He makes us writhe with the pain of Shylock’s predicament, and never steps out of character nor into stereotype.

When Walker asks Shylock’s question, “Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?” we begin to understand the depth of his experience and the importance of human dignity.

For information about performances of “The Merchant of Venice” and other season shows at the Theater at Monmouth, call 933-9999.