The Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh presents the Theatre for a New Audience production of The Merchant of Venice, 18 January – 15 February 2025
The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh welcomes the New York City-based Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA)’s production of The Merchant of Venice as part of the two theatres’ Shakespeare Exchange, which saw the Lyceum’s production of Macbeth (An Undoing) take the stage at TFANA’s home, Polonsky Shakespeare Center, in spring 2024.
TFANA’s OBIE Award-winning resident director Arin Arbus (for TFANA: Othello, The Skin of our Teeth, The Father & A Doll’s House, Waiting for Godot, Des Moines; for Broadway: Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune) first staged The Merchant of Venice with Thompson as Shylock in an acclaimed 2022 co-production of TFANA and Washington, D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre Company. This 2025 production will be the Edinburgh debuts of the artists and TFANA. It again features Mr. Thompson as Shylock and many of the actors from the original company reprising their roles, staged by Ms. Arbus with the original creative team specifically for the Lyceum.
What is TFANA's The Merchant of Venice About?
This perennially contested play about corrosive bigotry and blinding vengeance is poised at the radioactive intersection of race, class, sexual orientation, and religion in this acclaimed US production. A mediaeval centre of trade and an early mercantile state, Venice is often considered a birthplace of capitalism. “Perhaps not coincidentally,” notes Arbus, “it's also the birthplace of the original ghetto.”
Within the world of Shakespeare’s predominantly Christian Venice, Shylock is treated as a second-class citizen or worse. In 16th-century Venice, Jewish people were prohibited from practising most professions. They were required to wear Jewish signifiers on their clothing. They were not allowed to own land, but rather had to rent homes within the gated ghetto that was locked every evening from 6pm to 12pm.
John Douglas Thompson stars in the iconic role as Shylock
Two-time Drama Desk Award winner and Tony Award nominee John Douglas Thompson (The Gilded Age (HBO), Till, Othello (The Duke on 42nd Street), Jitney (Samuel J. Friedman Theatre) stars as Shylock. Thompson, also the recipient of three OBIE Awards, recently performed as Othello with the Royal Shakespeare Company and is taking on two iconic Shakespearian roles back-to-back.
Though many great actors have played Shylock on the professional stage since the first recorded performance in 1605, very few have been Black. The first was probably Ira Aldridge who due to racial discrimination left New York in 1824 to pursue a career as an actor in the United Kingdom. In 1825, at age seventeen, Aldridge became the first Black actor to play the title role in Othello in the United Kingdom.
From that performance he established a distinguished career. In 1831, Aldridge first played Shylock in Hull, England. Though he subsequently performed Shylock throughout England, Ireland, Russia, and continental Europe, Aldridge did not play Shylock in Scotland in a full production. Rather, he showcased scenes from The Merchant of Venice, Othello, and Richard III.
Paul Butler, the Black American actor, played Shylock in Chicago’s Goodman Theatre’s production directed by Peter Sellars which was also presented at London’s Barbican Theatre in 1994. However, according to TFANA’s research, John Douglas Thompson will be the first Black actor to play Shylock in a full professional production on the Edinburgh stage.
John Douglas Thompson said: “Shylock is, in my mind, a proxy for the other, if you will. Whether that other is Black, whether that other is immigrant, whether that other is based upon gender, whether that other is based upon sex, whether that other is based upon religion, culture…Shylock, for me, represents all those others. And I feel that we do live in this world where large groups of people, different people, are being persecuted for their differences. And this allows me on some activist level, to speak to that as an actor.”
Who else is in the cast?
From the original 2022 company and taking the leading roles of Portia and Antonio are respectively Isabel Arraiza (The Little Things, Outer Range, Pearson) and Alfredo Narciso (Law & Order, The Guys, See How They Run).
They are joined by the 2022 cast members, Shirine Babb (This Random World (Bingham Theatre), A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical) as Narissa; Varín Ayala (Old Maid, Lie To Me, Younger) as the Prince of Arragon; Jeff Biehl (Waiting for Godot (TFANA), Patriots (The Barrymore Theatre), MACHINAL (Roundabout Theatre Company) as Balthazar; Danaya Esperanza (Men On Boats (Clubbed Thumb), Washeteria (Soho Repertory), Elementary (CBS)) as Jessica; Yonatan Gebeyehu (Timon of Athens (TFANA), I Thought I Would Die, But I Didn’t (New Georges / The Tank)) as Solanio; Đavid Lee Huỳnh (Hamlet (Denver Center for Performing Arts), Star Wars: Tempest Breaker, The Far Country (Yale Repertory Theatre)) as Lorenzo; Maurice Jones (The Tempest: A Surround Sound Odyssey, Romeo and Juliet (Richard Rogers Theatre), Julius Ceasar (Belasco Theatre)) as the Prince of Morocco, Tubal, and the Duke); Haynes Thigpen (Elementary (CBS), Arden of Faversham (Lucille Lortel Theatre)) as Gratiano.
New to the company are Dave Quay (House of Cards (Netflix), GOTHAM (Fox), Tempest (Shakespeare Theatre)) as Salerio.; Matt Saldivar (South Pacific (Lincoln Center Theater), Hamlet (Public Theater)); and Ariel Shafir (Only Murders in the Building, What Happens Next, The Sinner) as Bassanio.
Director, Arin Arbus, said: “I’m thrilled to freshly explore Merchant for an entirely new audience in Edinburgh now. What we discovered in 2022 reflected that time. But, in 2025 the world is, of course, different. This production is set in an American city in the near future. The play depicts a divided society saturated with hate and inequity. The world boils with anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia, misogyny, classism, and homophobia. In private, even Portia – the ingénue – makes overtly racist jokes about the color of the Prince of Morocco's skin. In this deeply stratified society laws enforce inequity. The societal systems enable certain groups of people to have power and ensure that others do not. By casting a Black man as Shylock, one becomes painfully aware of the connections between Shakespeare's 16th C. Venice and our world now."
The Merchant of Venice Creative Team
Arin Arbus - Director
Riccardo Hernandez - Scenic Design
Emily Rebholz - Costume Design
Marcus Doshi - Lighting Design
Justin Ellington - Original Music & Sound Design
Tommy Kurzman - Hair and Wig Designer
Jonno Knust - Properties Supervisor
Andrew Wade - Voice Director
Jonathan Kalb - Resident Dramaturg
Ayanna Thompson - Consulting Scholar, Regents Professor of English, Arizona State University
TFANA The Merchant of Venice CAST, at The Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh 2025
Isabel Arraiza - Portia
Varín Ayala - The Prince of Arragon
Shirine Babb - Nerissa
Jeff Biehl - Balthazar
Danaya Esperanza - Jessica
Yonatan Gebeyehu - Solanio
Đavid Lee Huỳnh - Lorenzo
Maurice Jones - The Prince of Morocco / The Duke / Tubal
Alfredo Narciso – Antonio
Dave Quay - Salerio
Matt Saldivar – Lancelet Gobbo
Ariel Shafir - Bassanio
Haynes Thigpen - Gratiano
John Douglas Thompson - Shylock
⭐ The Merchant of Venice is at The Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh from Saturday 18th January to Saturday 18th February 2025. For more info and to book, contact the box office: https://lyceum.org.uk/events/the-merchant-of-venice#dates-and-times
Find Lisa in the Theatre on Instagram @lisa_inthetheatre and Twitter / X @Lisa_Theatre
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