Theater

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Directed by Bill Rauch

A comedy about bigotry?
Comedies end in weddings, and, true, The Merchant of Venice closes with three happy couples. But is Shakespeare’s play a comedy? Shylock, a moneylender from Venice’s Jewish ghetto, makes a loan, interest-free, to an upper-class Christian merchant. When the deal goes bad, years of discrimination surface as Shylock makes a harsh demand for repayment. If this is comedy, it is a fearless, ironic one in which, amidst comic moments, the quality of mercy is cross-examined and complex issues of difference are unmasked.