STREAMED SHAKESPEARE : THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

Streamed Shakespeare has a new production up and running and that is the classic Shakespeare comedy drama ‘The Merchant Of Venice’.

The production will be directed by Roslyn Hicks and starring Haki Pepo Olu Crisden as Antonio,
popular Jewish-Australian performer Geoff Sirmai as Shylock and – as Portia – Jess Loudon, an Auckland-based Australian actor best known for her roles with Pop-Up Globe and Sport for Jove theatre companies.

The cast will also feature Jamie Collette, Holly Champion, Jacqui Greenfield, Samantha Winsor, Adriane White, Jim Southwell, Chiara Osborn, Kim Jones, Susan Jordan, Meredith O’Reilly, Adeeb Razzouk & Jessie Trompp.

The production will be particularly topical as it will tackle contemporary questions of tolerance vs inclusion, revenge vs reconciliation, as seen through  the lens of current events.

Hjck’s. said one of the play’s main themes is “ I think it sums up our hypocrisy when we know what the better thing to do would be, but it is much harder to be the one humble enough actually to do it.” – 

The productions will be streamed on  Friday 21 August 11.45am – 3pm, Saturday 22 August 7-9.45pm and Sunday 23 August 2pm-4.45pm. 

For the first time, schools will be able to access the live performance on August 21st as an enrichment activity to deepen students’ understanding of the play.

Those performances have evolved from simple streamed re-tellings to highly realized productions, including music, video backgrounds, animation and visual effects.

Streamed Shakespeare has performed 13 Shakespearean dramatic readings since its inception
to an Australia-wide and international audience that recently topped the 40,000 mark.

For more information visit  http://www.streamedshakespeare.com/

Featured image : Jess Loudon as Portia.