William Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice

Theatron Westpark, Gilmstraße / Preßburger Straße, 81377 München
Theater

William Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice

Diesen Sommer präsentiert Entity Theatre William Shakespeares Komödie „The Merchant of Venice“ im Theatron, Westpark.

Adaption und Regie von Conny Loder & John Yates, produziert von Ken Lawler & Peter Heinz.

Das Stück

Antonio, ein venezianischer Kaufmann, bittet Shylock um finanzielle Unterstützung, damit Bassanio erfolgreich um die Hand Portias werben kann. Als Antonio das Darlehen nicht zurückzahlen kann, verlangt Shylock die Rückzahlung der Schuld in Form eines Pfunds seines Fleisches. Portia, jetzt die Frau von Bassanio, verkleidet sich als Anwältin und übernimmt Antonios Verteidigung. Wird sie Erfolg haben?

Aufführungstermine: 4. – 6. Juli 2025, 19:00 11.-13. Juli 2025, 19.00 Uhr 18. – 20. Juli 2025, 19.00 Uhr

Die Aufführungen dauern ca. 90 Minuten. Bringt einfach eine Decke und ein Picknick mit und genießt unsere gekürzte Version von „The Merchant of Venice“.

Alle Vorstellungen sind auf Englisch.

Der Eintritt ist frei!

Bitte beachtet, dass es sich um eine Freilichtaufführung handelt; wir empfehlen, geeignete Kleidung und Schuhe zu tragen.

Sollte es regnen, bitte unser Wettertelefon unter 0176 52441735 anrufen.

Entity Theatre returns to Westpark with William Shakespeare’s comedy The Merchant of Venice, directed by Conny Loder and John Yates, and produced by Ken Lawler and Peter Heinz.

Performances will take place at the Theatron, Westpark on 4th-6th, 11th-13th and 18-20th July 2025 at 19:00h (nearest Ubahn station: Holzapfelkreuth, U6, 15-minute-walk). All performances are in English. Admission is free, donations welcome.

About the play

Shakespeare’s dark comedy The Merchant of Venice, written between 1596 and 1598, draws on various Italian and English sources referencing the casket story and the long-standing motif of the bond of flesh. Following anti-Jewish sentiment in 1594, the play addresses the case of Ruy Lopez, a Portuguese Jew and physician to Queen Elizabeth I, who was executed for attempting to murder the Queen. As Christopher Marlowe’s antisemitic play The Jew of Malta was being revived during Lopez’s trial, it was assumed that Shakespeare had written his own antisemitic play in an attempt to emulate Marlowe’s success. However, unlike Barabbas in Marlowe’s play, Shakespeare’s Jewish protagonist, Shylock, is portrayed as a human being who struggles with prejudice and discrimination.

The setting of Venice would have been familiar to Shakespeare’s audience as a major European trading city that offered equality to all its citizens, including minorities such as the Jewish community – a situation that was clearly not replicated in Shakespeare’s England. Nevertheless, Shakespeare depicts the Venetian community as flawed, portraying Christian hypocrisy, greed, and antisemitic stereotypes.

The title character, Antonio, and the legal bond whereby Shylock can claim a pound of Antonio’s flesh if the debt is not repaid provide the framework for the play’s romantic elements: love and friendship triumph, and a miracle—Portia dressing as a man—intervenes to save the merchant from certain death. Alongside the fairy-tale motif of the male hero having to prove, his worth to his future wife by selecting the correct casket, these elements stem directly from Ser Giovanni Fiorentino’s novella collection, Il Pecorone (c. 1558).

Entity’s production of The Merchant of Venice is set in a light-hearted, post-fascist 1950s Venice that is bustling with economic recovery and a desire to begin a new era. Meanwhile, the play’s tragic undertones, its exploration of mercy versus justice and the prejudices faced by minorities such as Shylock resonate with ongoing struggles for equality and human rights today. The play encourages us to consider the moral consequences of revenge and the importance of empathy in resolving conflicts, as well as the ongoing battle against discrimination—issues that remain as relevant today as they were in the 1950s and in Shakespeare’s own time.

(Veranstaltertext)

https://youtu.be/cAFeXoekkaI

Termine & Tickets

+ weitere Termine

Veranstaltungsort / Karte

Veranstaltungen / Theater