ONE WEEKEND ONLY more ›

RECOMMENDED more ›

In our review of the "startlingly good" Merchant of Venice at Seattle Shakespeare Company, we left out one other reason we enjoyed the show--the performance of Melanie Moser as Jessica, Shylock's daughter. Few American actors make good friends with Shakespearean speech--they tend to emphasize the important words as landmarks--and their awkward hops from point to point add to the dislocation audiences feel as they struggle to adapt their ear to the rhythm. But fewer have Moser's talent, which is to speak Shakespeare as if he's finally put into words--into these words--what she feels. The emotion lies in the flights of language, in the way the way words pour forth, and Moser nails this. more ›

Pulling off a Merchant at all is not easy. It's a play that pokes its nose into disreputable harbors, taking in the sights in a queasy, sea-voyaging way that keeps you pining for dry land. And it turns around an infamously over-determined character, Shylock, the Jewish loan broker. more ›

MvB is going to get his pound of opening night hors d'oeuvres after seeing the The Merchant of Venice at the Seattle Shakespeare Company tonight. Saturday, if rainy, may involve an all-day LOTR-athon at a friend's in LQA.
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We have to start here by jumping in and saying that this is easily one of the most exciting weekends of theatre we've seen in town in months--two festivals running, genre-breaking opera, ballet crossing over into Broadway show tune territory, two shows that have had their runs extended (, you've lost your bloody mind. It doesn't get better than this! more ›