Shakespeare’s perennially contested play about corrosive bigotry and blinding vengeance is poised squarely at the radioactive intersection of race, class and religion in Arin Arbus’s production. John Douglas Thompson stars as the ill-used, vindictive money-lender Shylock in his fifth classical collaboration with Arbus. The show’s uniquely diverse company and creative team evoke a deeply stratified Venice suffused with racism, misogyny, classism and homophobia, its connections to our own grievously fractured world vivid, stark and startling.

Co-production with Shakespeare Theatre Company

SYNOPSIS:

In a city steeped in the ills of antisemitism, racism, misogyny, and homophobia, Shakespeare’s incendiary play exposes the fissures between fairness, accountability, and justice—and who profits from them.

Antonio, a young man, pledges a pound of his own flesh to a moneylender, Shylock, so a friend can woo his lady-love in style. Antonio learns a hard lesson in loyalty, humanity, friendship and prejudice when the revenge-seeking Shylock comes to collect and he is unable to pay.

Directed by Arin Arbus

Featuring John Douglas Thompson

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