Merchant of Venice.
On 23rd April 2016, I had the pleasure of seeing one of William Shakespeare’s romantic comedies, The Merchant of Venice, performed beautifully at Pentas 2, Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre in Sentul Park. Brought to you by KL Shakespeare Players and produced by The Actors Studio Teater Rakyat, it is directed by Lim Kien Lee. The main characters are Shylock (Lim Soon Heng), Antonio (Ivan Chan) and Portia (Tika Mutamir).
The play is about a merchant named Antonio in the 16th-century Venice who must renege on a huge loan supplied by Shylock, an abused Jewish moneylender. As answered by Kien Lee, the manner this story was told intends to rely heavily on the audience’s imagination (this will be elaborated in the next paragraphs). Despite so, the story convinced me as every happening owns its reason and each character has a function. The scene which I personally find worked best is where Shylock is near to cutting flesh off Antonio’s chest - the atmosphere was so intense I was truly terrified for the actor’s life instead of the character. Other than that, I love how the production kept the audience’s interest most of the time by breaking the fourth wall with narration, also using a few people from the audience extemporaneously as characters in the play.
There are several scenes in this play but the set only seems little more than a bare stage, which I find it intended to overstretch the audience’s vision. I like how this setting gives the actors freedom to perform at every corner of given space because it demolishes the sense of limitation. However, a few number of props and basic white lighting does restrain the performance of the actors and the outcome of the play, which then cause their acting skills to be burdened. The choice of music and special effects such as the Ukelele instrumental and the percussion beats brought the play to life, without them I might even fall asleep. Besides, the costume selection made character transitions simple to prevent inappropriate pauses, but the mediocre design of them failed to catch my eye.
Moving on, the actors and actress’ performance hold a significant role in this play due to lack of technical setting and multiple character transitions. I enjoyed the transformations between Ivan Chan’s characters as the contrast between them are very distinct compared to those of other actors, especially the Prince of Morocco! When Kien Lee played as Nerissa, I like how he used his voice and body differently to evidently show that he’s acting as a female. What made my heart stopped was how engaged Soon Heng performed Shylock’s anger by projecting his expressions to the point that spit brutally flew out from his mouth. Although most of the performers did well, I personally disliked the performance of Kgia Loong (who played Jessica, Salanio and a guard) as her expressions are near the frozen state. I wasn’t moved by her acting, instead I cringed when she spoke.
In overall, the play was a successful one as it managed to present a work of Shakespeare in a unique manner, at the same time allowed the audience to understand the story. The balance of comedy, romance and drama presented me a worthful use of time and a great amount of enjoyment seeing this play. It has also inspired me to utilize a minimal setting of props and lighting in my future works. If you’re one of Shakespeare’s fans who loves plays done with an exceptional way, this play is definitely for you!
