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A GATHERING OF STRANGERS--THE MAKING OF THE MERCHANT IN VENICE

Documentary - Post-Production 2024

This project is like “a gathering of strangers,” say producers of the first performance of Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice’ inside the Jewish ghetto in Venice, Italy. Actors reflect upon the controversial character of Shylock at a moment when massacres and ancient hatreds are resurgent.

- Year of production
- 2024
- Genres
- Documentary
- Countries
- ITALY, USA
- Languages
- ENGLISH-UNITED STATES, ITALIAN, HEBREW
- Budget
- 0 - 0.3 M$
- Duration
- 86 mn
- Synopsis
- "The villainy you teach me I will execute--and it will go hard" says Shylock, the Jewish 'money lender' and controversial antagonist in Shakespeare's play "The Merchant of Venice" (TMOV). His lines continue to echo in 2024. Was Shakespeare antisemitic in his portrayal of Shylock four hundred years ago? Do his words allow for other interpretations? “A Gathering of Strangers” invites us on an impossible journey—witnessing a radical mounting of TMOV in its original setting, the five-hundred-year-old Jewish Ghetto of Venice, Italy. Actors rehearse while faith-based massacres dominate the news, re-contextualizing their performances. Karin Coonrod, the performance’s tireless director, extracts Shakespeare's use of the word "mercy" to identify moments of potential redemption for Shylock, Portia, the Merchant, Jessica. These characters do not display mercy to each other—only judgement, cruelty, vengeance, and ridicule. And this is a Shakespearean ‘comedy’! “Rough mercy...” says Coonrod. "Shakespeare."