Event at a glance
Venue: The Cockpit Theatre (NW8 8EH, London)
Date attended: 22, October 2015
On Until: 25, October 2015
Ticket Cost: 17.5 GBP
My brief review: humorous and sarcastic, revealing play and appealing performance. Recommended for a Friday night out with your partner or friends.
I still remember learning Shakespeare's The
Merchant of Venice in primary school,which was selected to be part of the Chinese language textbook, interestingly. At that time, my deepest impression was that
Sherlock insisted on cutting a pound of flesh, as a result he lost all his properties. Today, as the modern re-write of Merchant of Venice, The
Merchant of Vembley, presents us the
story of merchants in a totally different setting, but similar plot framework. Nevertheless, adding some modern elements does spice up the play, such as visa problems relating to Home Office, and using smart
phones to collect evidence.
Furthermore, the ending also entails a modern and surprising twist. Do you still remember why Sherlock couldn't cut the one pound of flesh? Because he couldn't cut it without shedding a drop of blood. Well now, with the modern science and technology, tools are invented so that the flesh can be cut without bleeding. This modern Sherlock now has come for the revenge, fully prepared with the advanced tool. However, eventually, he still could not do it. He couldn't bear himself cutting that pound of flesh, despite of his intense outrage and strong revenge against the Hindus. It seems that mercy does not come from others begging, nor it is bestowed by God. It is from the overcome of the negative energy with the positive energy in his inner self.
The play touches on various issues in the modern society, in a humorous and sarcastic way, including ethnic conflict and discrimination, gender discrimination, marriage concept, religious bondage, conflict and rebellion.
The script of the play is well written with polished and refined language. As a linguistics I would like to share few of the language highlights here.
Firstly, the play uses a lot of anagrams, for example:
God-Dog
Life-File
Teach-Cheat
Shop-Posh
The play enhances its irony by using these anagrams. For example, the fallen Bollywood star says: "I was treated as God in India, while now as a Dog in London". Another example, life is made up with different files, day after day. Does this sound familiar to the office clerks? Also, some high-sounding preachers or teachers cheat people in form of teaching. Isn't this a common issue in real life? Lastly, the posh often shop, don't they?
Secondly, there are two enlightening sentences which are haunted in my mind.
The first sentence: In the West, women marry the man they fall in love with; In the East, women fall in love with the man they marry.
This sentence depicts the opposite traditional marriage concept between the East and West women. Traditionally, most Western women fall in love with a man and then marry him; while most oriental women get married first and then slowly fall in love with her husband (if she ever does, lol). This actually very vividly describes the marriage concept of my parents' generation. My parents were introduced to each other by the matchmaker to meet once or twice, and then they got married. As for whether my mom ever fell in love with my dad, I still don't have an answer for that so far. I am not sure whether there is more romantic love or kinship love between them, to be honest. I remember five years ago in a Hong Kong film, the daughter wants to marry the man she met the day before, and the father immediately objected that: how can you marry someone who you just know for one day? The daughter confidently answer: this is a way more conservative than you and my mom. You two got married and then met each other that night. Of course, in today's society, whether East or West, women mostly choose their own love. These concepts are no longer applicable, but the beauty of the language, is eternal.
The second sentence: You reap what you sow.
This motto can be explained in simple words: people treat you the way you treat them, or what comes around goes around.
The language of the play is smartly refined, while the synopsis is even more. For those who would like to challenge the advanced vocabulary and know more about the play, please read on.
Furthermore, the ending also entails a modern and surprising twist. Do you still remember why Sherlock couldn't cut the one pound of flesh? Because he couldn't cut it without shedding a drop of blood. Well now, with the modern science and technology, tools are invented so that the flesh can be cut without bleeding. This modern Sherlock now has come for the revenge, fully prepared with the advanced tool. However, eventually, he still could not do it. He couldn't bear himself cutting that pound of flesh, despite of his intense outrage and strong revenge against the Hindus. It seems that mercy does not come from others begging, nor it is bestowed by God. It is from the overcome of the negative energy with the positive energy in his inner self.
The play touches on various issues in the modern society, in a humorous and sarcastic way, including ethnic conflict and discrimination, gender discrimination, marriage concept, religious bondage, conflict and rebellion.
The script of the play is well written with polished and refined language. As a linguistics I would like to share few of the language highlights here.
Firstly, the play uses a lot of anagrams, for example:
God-Dog
Life-File
Teach-Cheat
Shop-Posh
The play enhances its irony by using these anagrams. For example, the fallen Bollywood star says: "I was treated as God in India, while now as a Dog in London". Another example, life is made up with different files, day after day. Does this sound familiar to the office clerks? Also, some high-sounding preachers or teachers cheat people in form of teaching. Isn't this a common issue in real life? Lastly, the posh often shop, don't they?
Secondly, there are two enlightening sentences which are haunted in my mind.
The first sentence: In the West, women marry the man they fall in love with; In the East, women fall in love with the man they marry.
This sentence depicts the opposite traditional marriage concept between the East and West women. Traditionally, most Western women fall in love with a man and then marry him; while most oriental women get married first and then slowly fall in love with her husband (if she ever does, lol). This actually very vividly describes the marriage concept of my parents' generation. My parents were introduced to each other by the matchmaker to meet once or twice, and then they got married. As for whether my mom ever fell in love with my dad, I still don't have an answer for that so far. I am not sure whether there is more romantic love or kinship love between them, to be honest. I remember five years ago in a Hong Kong film, the daughter wants to marry the man she met the day before, and the father immediately objected that: how can you marry someone who you just know for one day? The daughter confidently answer: this is a way more conservative than you and my mom. You two got married and then met each other that night. Of course, in today's society, whether East or West, women mostly choose their own love. These concepts are no longer applicable, but the beauty of the language, is eternal.
The second sentence: You reap what you sow.
This motto can be explained in simple words: people treat you the way you treat them, or what comes around goes around.
The language of the play is smartly refined, while the synopsis is even more. For those who would like to challenge the advanced vocabulary and know more about the play, please read on.
Synopsis
A mordant and modern re-write of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice transported to the South Asian community of contemporary London.
The UK premiere of Shishir Kurup’s socially topical and politically provocative Merchant of Vembley opens at the Cockpit Theatre on 6th October. Created by the Rented Space Theatre Company, the show runs until 25th October.
In the ethnically diverse
suburbs of North West London where, instead of Christians and Jews,
Hindus and Muslims are grappling for power and revealing their prejudices, this wickedly funny and inventive re-write of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice fuses
music, blank verse, video and pop-references. The play explores forbidden love in multi-cultural societies and how majority groups marginalize the minority – issues that have existed from time immemorial, and are even more relevant and pertinent in today’s
political climate.
Debuting to critical acclaim as Merchant on Venice in Chicago, the play wove post 9/11 paranoia and Islamophobia into a tapestry of South Asian themes. Now relocated to a London inured to the
daily news’ obsession with “Terror”, it retains the colour, language and
context of the original along with its plea for tolerance and
transformation. No punches are pulled and with no bows to political
correctness, Kurup’s effervescent script fizzes and crackles on the
stage - leaving little mercy but delivering plenty of dark belly-laughs.
Reference of the synopsis:
http://merchantofwembley.com/Merchant_Of_Wembley/Home.html
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Summary of useful vocabulary from this post
- Synopsis
- mordant
- contemporary
- premiere
- topical
- provocative
- ethnically
- diverse
- prejudices
- wickedly
- inventive
- fuses
- blank verse
- forbidden
- marginalize
- immemorial
- pertinent
- Debuting
- acclaim
- wove
- paranoia
- Islamophobia
- tapestry
- plea
- No punches are pulled
- effervescent
- fizzes
- crackles
- belly-laughs
- heiress
- bankroll
- conduit
- defaults
- dangling
- deathbed
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