Shakespeare In Performance

In “Shakespeare in Performance,” Professor Daniel Pollack-Pelzner takes up the question: “Why perform The Merchant of Venice?” The fraught history of this troubling play has morphed from performing it as a comedy, championing young lovers who outwit the murderous plot of Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, to staging it as a tragedy of social prejudices and institutional injustices that spur inhumane actions. As the play has been cut, amended, restaged, and reimagined, its focus has shifted to encompass questions of gender and sexuality, race and economics, alongside the religious and ethnic dynamics that provide a shifting mirror for audiences’ fears and fantasies. This lecture interweaves research in Shakespeare production history with performances by actors from theatre dybbuk.

Dr. Pollack-Pelzner served as a consulting scholar on The Merchant of Venice (Annotated), or In Sooth I Know Not Why I Am So Sad.