Merchant of Venice - Bob Jones University Classic Players

00:00:00 Introduction to the Play 00:03:25 Act 1 Scene 1 00:11:57 Act 1 Scene 2 00:16:17 Act 1 Scene 3 00:26:01 Act 2 Scene 1 00:27:53 Act 2 Scene 2 00:33:07 Act 2 Scene 3 00:34:26 Act 2 Scene 4 00:36:12 Act 2 Scene 5 00:39:36 Act 2 Scene 6 00:43:10 Act 2 Scene 7 00:47:21 Act 2 Scene 8 00:49:35 Act 2 Scene 9 00:56:01 Act 3 Scene 1 01:03:45 Act 3 Scene 2 01:15:51 Act 3 Scene 3 01:17:40 Act 3 Scene 4 01:20:03 Intermission 01:20:41 Act 4 Scene 1 01:44:29 Act 5 Scene 1 01:56:23 Curtain Call 01:57:19 Credits THE SETTING Italy, 1953 The play takes place in the streets of Venice and at Belmont, Portia’s country estate. A PARABLE OF MERCY The Merchant of Venice is one of William Shakespeare’s most richly complex and heatedly debated plays. In it, Shakespeare presents numerous ethical extremes—prejudice and mercy, avarice and self-sacrifice, revenge and forgiveness—within the context of a traditional Elizabethan comedy. There is love, laughter, disguise and a happy-ever-after. The problem comes in the play’s insensitive and oft-offensive portrayal of the Jewish moneylender, Shylock. It is a play that forces modern audiences to examine their own biases and misconceptions, and often leaves them teetering uncomfortably between indignation at Shylock’s malice and horror at the other characters’ treatment of him. In this late 16th-century play, the terms Christian and Jew appear to serve more as racial and cultural labels than as religious ones. Most of the play’s Christian characters are poor examples of Christianity, just as Shylock is a poor example of Judaism. Shylock’s fraudulence is apparent: He is greedy, unforgiving, vengeful and unkind even to those who love him. But note the hypocrisy of Shakespeare’s Christians: They spit on, scorn and defame their Jewish neighbors. So when the Christians cry “Foul!” at Shylock’s claim to Antonio’s flesh, Shylock protests that he is merely imitating them: “If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge.” Act 4’s courtroom scene marks the play’s climax, not only emotionally and theatrically, but also theologically. There, emerging from the muck of prejudice and pretense, the Christian ideal is given voice in Portia’s famous “mercy” speech and is finally demonstrated in the mercy of the Duke and Antonio. After scene upon scene wherein those called Christian do not act like Christians, Portia’s portrait of what the Jewish Apostle James might call “pure and undefiled religion” shines like a candle in the dark Venetian world. Portia’s impassioned appeal, however, cannot touch Shylock’s heart. Rather, he is smug and self-righteous, demanding only the letter of the law. He resists every plea but the exact conditions of his bond. This is ultimately his downfall. The impasse between mercy and justice transforms the courtroom scene into something larger than the case itself. The tension is not merely over Shylock’s legal claim (“I’ll have my bond”) against Antonio’s defaulted debt. Nor is the tension over the irrational cruelty of personal revenge. Seen through the lens of a biblical worldview, the courtroom becomes a parable of the clash between Law (justice) and Gospel (mercy). The one who demands pure justice will find justice to be his undoing. Yet mercy without justice holds no one accountable for evil. God alone is able to dispense complete mercy alongside perfect justice through Christ’s sacrifice. His mercy is humankind’s only hope—a shorthand for the Gospel. Though justice be thy plea, consider this: That in the course of justice none of us Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy, And that same prayer doth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy. In keeping with this progression from religious caricature to religious ideal, this production dispenses with Shylock’s forced conversion to Christianity. Whatever it may have communicated in Shakespeare’s day, such compulsion is incongruous, not merely with modern norms of tolerance, but with the glimpse of true Christianity the audience finally sees in the courtroom. To be sure, not everyone in the courtroom is changed. However, by scene’s end it seems that both Shylock and Antonio are, if not truly changed, at least humbled. The audience leaves the courtroom hopeful that neither will treat the other as he has in the past.