INTRODUCTION
A dark comedy of love and money, where everything depends upon appearances and nothing is quite what it appears.
Amidst the splendour of the palaces and canals, the best and worst of human qualities collide in a fable as contemporary as it is ageless.
Even in the fairy-tale city violence may lie just around the corner.

(Source: Festival programme)

SYNOPSIS
In Belmont: Portia (Niamh Cusack), a wealthy heiress, has been left three caskets in her father's will - one of gold, one of silver, and one of lead. Inside one casket is her portrait, and Portia is obliged to marry the man who chooses correctly. Suitors come from the four corners of the world to win her hand.

In Venice: Bassanio (Patrick Robinson), a young man about town, is determined to woo Portia for himself. In order to finance his expedition, he needs three thousand ducats - a huge amount of money. He asks Antonio (Philip Quast), a rich merchant who loves him, to lend him the money.

Antonio, however, is temporarily short of funds because his fortune is tied up in merchandise at sea and he is forced to borrow the ducats from Shylock (Desmond Barrit), a wealthy Jewish moneylender. Antonio and Shylock dislike each other: Antonio because he despises the practice of usury and also because Shylock is a Jew, and Shylock because Antonio lends out money without charge, which Shylock feels damages his own business. However, on this occasion, Shylock agrees to lend the money without interest, but he proposes a strange forfeit - a pound of Antonio's flesh - if he defaults on the loan.

Bassanio goes to Belmont and succeeds in choosing the right casket and winning his bride. Portia gives him a ring which he swears never to part with. Her maid, Nerissa (Dido Miles), is similarly courted by Gratiano (Geoffrey Streatfeild) and gives him her ring.

Shylock's daughter Jessica (Alexandra Moen) elopes with her lover, the Christian Lorenzo (Ed Stoppard), and steals her father's money and jewels.

News comes that Antonio's fortunes are lost at sea. Shylock, distraught at the loss of his daughter and his ducats, and provoked by constant Jew-baiting from the Christians, seizes on this news and determines to demand payment of the forfeit.

In court, Shylock demands the fulfilment of the bond. Portia and Nerissa, disguised as lawyers, frustrate Shylock's plans and, as a test of constancy, each beg in payment the ring she gave her betrothed. The final unmasking in Belmont, and the restoring of Antonio's fortune, end the play.

(Source: RSC)

THE FESTIVAL THEATRE STAGE
Alison Chitty created a flexible 'installation' in the Festival Theatre, which was to be adapted and developed by each production designer to provide the setting for each production. A simple unified colour scheme was used to unite auditorium and stage, so that the audience were not sitting in one place watching a group of actors going about their story in another space, but both actors and audience shared the same room. This new stage - almost twice its original width - had been fitted with a fibreglass skin to create a pool containing an immense 9800 litres of water. The decision to base the installation around water came from the Festival theme of Venice. The pool was covered over or revealed as suited each production, the result being a 'kit' of interchangeable parts which could be changed from one show to another in just two hours.

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