Performing Arts

When Shakespeare Dallas' The Merchant of Venice is good, it is very, very good. When it is not, it is horrifying – in a good way.

Photos by MATT NAGER/Special Contributor

Jessica D. Turner (right) stars as Portia, and Heather Pratt is Nerissa in Shakespeare Dallas' production of The Merchant of Venice, playing at Samuell-Grand Amphitheatre.

Only a few decades ago one of the most popular Shakespeare comedies, The Merchant of Venice has slipped into near oblivion because of its treatment of its most famous character. Shylock, the Jewish moneylender, is the villain of the piece. He agrees to lend money to Antonio, a man who has despised and persecuted him, on the condition that he will take a pound of Antonio's flesh if the loan defaults.

Shakespeare turns the plot into an allegory of justice vs. mercy, but he also humanizes Shylock to an unprecedented degree. Lines like the famous "Hath not a Jew eyes?" make us sympathize with this man reviled and spat upon by his enemies.

Director Rene Moreno cast Shakespeare Dallas boss Raphael Parry as Shylock in the production, which was reviewed at Thursday's preview. (After two weekends in Samuell-Grand Park, the show moves first to Addison and then to Denton.) It's great to see this superlative actor in a juicy role again after a long hiatus. As expected, his unique leonine energy is perfectly suited to Shylock in the later sections of the play – when the enraged character is determined to get blood vengeance for the wrongs done him.

Early on, though, Mr. Parry is just too nice, too ordinary, to be the authoritative Shylock. In these post-Holocaust times, it's good we are all sensitive to the racial and religious indignities to which this character is subjected. To the credit of Mr. Moreno's version, they are truly shocking here. But a bland Shylock who at first really doesn't seem all that much of an outsider doesn't do justice to the play.

Some of the other parts in the businesslike Venice scenes are undercast, which also blunts their force. But the other side of the play, in which the rich young Portia carries out her late father's wishes in seeking a husband, is a complete triumph.

These scenes, with their riddles and masquerades, necessarily have a fairy-tale quality. Mr. Moreno and his excellent University of North Texas designers have milked the wonder and joy in them for all they are worth. Jessica D. Turner radiates good sense and good cheer as Portia, but everyone who comes onstage is caught up in the glory of it all.

So the elements of romantic comedy in this Merchant of Venice, usually so hard to make convincing, are superb. Mr. Moreno and his designers have obviously worked hard to both make them distinct from, and connect them to, the commercial savagery of the other half of the play. If they don't really succeed, maybe that's because nobody could, with this play in this day and age.Plan your life

The Merchant of Venice continues through Oct. 11 at the Samuell-Grand Amphitheatre. Runs 140 mins. $10. 214-559-2778, www.shakespearedallas.org.

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