Word: bassanio
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice is a sinister sort of comedy. Antonio, a wealthy merchant whose monies are invested in risky ventures overseas, lends out the sum of 3,000 ducats so that his friend Bassanio can court the rich heiress Portia. To get the cash, Antonio must borrow it from the Jewish moneylender Shylock. Shylock agrees to lend him the sum for three months but demands as his bond a pound of Antonio's flesh. A contract is drawn up, signed and sealed, and misery descends on both parties. The mutual hatred bound up in a loan under...
Across from Shylock are Antonio and Bassiano, played by Joe Nuccio '00 and Jay Chaffin '01. They are portrayed as unheroically as possible. Simpering and effeminate, Antonio hides himself behind the props of gloves and an ornate, scepter-like stick. Bassanio manages to rise from a state of dogged ineffectiveness for only a brief moment in his courtship with a stirring monologue condemning ostentation. The reversal of the hero roles in The Merchant of Venice, though effective and interesting, is at times taken a bit too far. When Bassanio throws himself at Portia's feet--kicking and yammering petulantly...
Another keystone in the cast is Gratiano, Bassanio's friend played by David Joffe '00. He imbues the production with a delightful and slightly anachronistic bawdy energy. His effortless movements from good natured lewdness to an extreme violence of anti-Semitism are startling and disconcerting, stressing the hatred that paves the way for Shylock's implacable lust for revenge...
...deeply ironic, actually, that Shakespeare chooses to cast his antagonist in the stereotypical role of the miser. As the play progresses, we see the stereotype reflected onto its creators as money reveals itself to be the foundation for their actions. Antonio's friendship with Bassanio is the relationship between benefactor and courtesan. Bassanio's love for Portia is linked to the fortune she will bring him, and even the marriage between Bassanio's man Gratiano and Portia's maid Nerissa (Catherine Crow HGSE '99) is contingent upon their employers' financial union. The Christians themselves embody the gross materialism they condemn...
...Giovanni in Spanish Harlem, putting King Lear in a Lincoln Continental or deconstructing other classic plays and operas. Shylock, along with the play's other Jews, is black. Antonio, the merchant of the title, and his kinsmen are Latinos. Portia, the wealthy maiden being wooed by Antonio's friend Bassanio, is Asian. But the racial shuffling is just one of Sellars' liberties. The stage is furnished with little but office furniture, while video screens simulcast the actors in close-up during their monologues (and, in between, display seemingly unrelated Southern California scenes, from gardens and swimming pools...