The New Globe

If the Globe were any more of a tourist trap, they’d tear off a hunk of cheese and put it in the middle of the stage. As befits a trap, it was pretty to look at but unpleasant to experience. After 6 cumulative hours of sitting between two plays, my back wants to kill me and I’m trying to channel those feelings towards their interpretation of the Merchant of Venice.

Probably because there are so many tourists, and probably because a great number of them do not speak English (a group of Germans gabbered throughout the performance), the director decided to go for the most broad-based, inclusive performance. That is the charitable interpretation. Quite possibly he just wanted to create a very dumb comedy. Somehow he transformed a problematic play about racial disharmony into a light, stupid comedy. I believe the actors may have had a pool to see who could fit the most hip thrusts into their performance, as it seemed every character had one or two at least.

That was a minor annoyance in comparison to their portrayal of a relatively minor character, The Moor. In the play, a Prince of Morocco comes to woo the lady Portia. Like all suitors, he is required to solve a challenge, which he fails. Portia drops a few asides about how much he hates people of “his complexion” (we are given to believe that the Moor is black), and that she’d never marry a black man. This is interesting, especially given the prejudice displayed towards Shylock, the Jewish character in the play. This moment was lost, because they unleashed a performance that lacked only a watermelon and some cornbread.

His entrance was thus: he came in like a boxer, prancing and with a sheer bathrobe over his naked upper body. The Moor was played as an absolute idiot, stumbling and bumbling over his words. In the text, however, it is clear that he is of adequate intelligence and courtly in manner. He was also played as extremely boorish, making unwanted advances on Portia. Lastly, to top it off, he thrust his pelvis, on the theory that every character has to. Awful shit. One of my seatmates put it best: “I don’t know what the racial politics of England are, but that’d never fly in the US.”

I liked the Globe better empty; it is lovingly restored and looks beautiful. To sit in the Globe is uncomfortable, but bearable if there is a good play. To sit through that, with the audience laughing at every dumb maneuver and gabbering amongst themselves otherwise, was pure hell.