A dancing, singing 'Merchant'

Whilst often considered a comedic melodrama, Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice is in reality one of the bard's more sober plays. While good triumphs over evil and true love still conquers all, the play also bears the scars of serious social issues.

Called anti-Semitic in the post-Holocaust era due the bard's stereotypical caricature of a cruel medieval money-obsessed Jew intent on extracting his pound of flesh at whatever cost, the play has often proven difficult to stage in more politically correct times.

Controversy, however, has not deterred stage director, Li Ming-tse (李明澤), from bringing his own re-working of the tale to the stage of the National Theater.

With the exception of the basic plot, which follows the trials and tribulations of Antonio and his sidekick, Bassanio, as they flirt with women and fall foul of an unscrupulous money lender, much of what takes place on stage in the up coming Tafeng Theater Company's (大風音樂劇) version of The Merchant of Venice is far-removed from the original Elizabethan text.

Starring a smorgasborg of stars of the local stage, including Yen Chia-le (顏嘉樂), Che Yen-chiang (車炎江), Huang Shi-wei (黃士偉) and Hong Rei-hsiang (洪瑞襄), it is local stage icon, Wang Po-sen (王柏森), who, in the role of the merchant of Venice, Antonio, is the star of the show.

After his performance as Mozart in last year's hugely popular Godot Theater Company (果陀劇場) adaptation of the hit Broadway play, Amadeus -- a role that saw the thespian lauded by critics nationwide -- Wang feels that the upcoming stylized and off-beat re-working of Shakespeare will be also prove a hit with local audiences.

"It would have proven very difficult to have staged the play in its original form in Taiwan. While audiences can relate to the underlying storylines, the themes used by the playwright are beyond the comprehension of most people," Wang said. "That's not to say nobody would understand it, but as we want to reach a wide audience we figured the only way to do this was to adapt and change it in certain ways."

While scriptwriter, Lian Yi-chou (連乙州), remained as true to the plot as possible and has included some of the bard's original monologues -- albeit translated versions of them -- much of the script has been especially penned for the Tafeng Theater Company.

"There are moments when we use translated Shakespeare, but we have ensured that much of what takes place is original," Wang said. "Along with orations, we've included a dozen songs and quite a few dance routines to keep the show fresh and audiences engaged."

The most radical and certainly most eye-catching alterations to the show are the stylized sets. Instead of creating a genuine and believable Venice, set designers looked to cartoons for inspiration and have created highly colorful, stylized and dream-like renderings of the watery Italian metropolis.

When the curtain rises at the National Theater for the show's premiere tonight, audiences will be transported not to a Venice as envisioned by the bard, but one filled with bright hues and curves that would not look too out of place in a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

"The stylized sets were chosen because we want the show to appeal to both adults and children," Wang said. "While adults will be able to follow the plot, we wanted something that would keep children amused and hold their interest, and what better way than to incorporate cartoon-style theatrics and sets into the play?"