A&E

Bard on the Beach...

Racism in the poetry?

The Merchant of Venice
still stirs up controversy

“But the
worst, most
insidious
effect of
censorship is
that, in the
end, it can
deaden the
imagination
of the
people,
where there

A : is no debate.
to Shylock, and when Jessica It is hard to

runs off with Lorenzo, he cracks

- and demands the debt be repaid go on

OS a pound of “fair remembering,
flesh.” lh 1 Belmont , Portia and : every day,
that there is

a suppressed
side to every
argument. It
becomes
almost
impossible
to conceive
of what the
suppressed
things might
be. It
becomes
easy to think
that what has
been
suppressed
was
valueless,
anyway, or
so dangerous But the racism hasn’t been discussed
that it needed yet! There is plenty of racist comments

that the modem day audience can pick
to be “soma, Up. Shak of was Shakesp

: nnocent, yet brash

suppressed. SHUG ny
And then the
victory of the

a my At the first oe é
total. oo : The Merchant of v
Ado About Nothing,
Fireworks, Opera

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

rachel young

 

The Other Press August 1996 7

 

See gem A pe No
———--