The Merchant of Venice

Rupert Goold is never one to do things by halves. In previous productions, he has shown a penchant for showbiz glitz, so it’s perhaps no surprise that he has decided here to shift the action from Venice to Las Vegas.

Kicking off with a big song and dance number and transforming Gobbo into an Elvis tribute act, the production embraces its theme with no small amount of relish. Patrick Stewart’s Shylock is a casino kingpin, while Bassanio and his retinue become macho mobsters. It is a transposition that for the most part works remarkably, bringing a real sense of dynamism and energy to the play and giving it a filmic quality that has been present in much of the director’s work.

But the most surprising aspect of Goold’s production is in his treatment of Portia. In a stand-out performance and making her RSC debut, Susannah Fielding plays her as a Southern belle forced to take part in a tacky TV game show to find a husband. By the end of the play, she is left as a kind of Stepford wife, trapped in a loveless marriage and spiralling into breakdown. She becomes as much the tragic centre of the play as Shylock – as much a victim of male Christian dominance as the Jew.

There is a downside to this radical reading of the play – Stewart’s Shylock seems strangely peripheral to much of the action. Because of this, the production will divide audiences, but is undoubtedly vital and on occasion inspired. Meanwhile, the staging – by Tom Scutt – rebuffs suggestions that the RSC’s new thrust stage can’t handle grand scenic design.