The Proceedings of the Court

Yesterday at theater we worked on the huge court scene in The Merchant of Venice. This is one of the most famous/infamous scenes in Shakespearean literature. We had a lot of fun with it, of course. Who should be on the stage? Pretty much everyone. What should we be doing? Siding with Antonio, for everyone but Antonio and Shylock. I enjoyed looking concerned, scared, upset, fascinated, and wickedly gleeful while watching my younger brother (Antonio) and his best friend (Shylock) perform.

Then the casts switched, and I was still on stage. Just not as a named character. The Shylock and Antonio were different, and while all are good actors, there is something the young man playing Shylock did better. When everything has just been taken from him, he manages to convey the look on his face that everything has, indeed, been taken away. And the rest of us all have to look on evilly and have no pity for him. Of course, all feelings of "This character stinks" vanished when I glanced at the door through which the young man departed. Through the window he was making funny faces at us, trying to make us laugh on stage. But I have to keep telling myself DON'T TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY! How do career method actors live?

There's one question I have about this scene. It's been established that Antonio is a jerk and that we only like him because he's rich and he only likes us because we're nobles. So if Antonio is totally broke, why on earth are we still on his side? Antonio has no value to us anymore. Are we just for him because we're against poor Shylock? Truly? I understand why, as the director tells us, we're more darkly fascinated (Oh my gosh, will Shylock actually kill him? Oooooo, he's raising the knife -) than grieved and upset. We're glad Shylock loses, probably, more than we are glad Antonio lives.

There are no good characters in this play. Even Portia is prejudiced, and my youngest brother's character, Gratiano (he's perfect for this totally off-the-wall character) is the biggest jerk ever. Even his friend Bassanio says, "Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in Venice." (Somewhere in Act One Scene One.) There are no good characters. But there are fun characters, and that's what will keep us happy with this play. Hey, aren't good characters boring anyway?