Review-The Merchant of Venice-Singapore Repertory Theatre
20-5-14
By: Meaghan McGurgan
Over the weekend I was invited out to Singapore to see Singapore Rep's Shakespeare in the Park. This year's production was The Merchant of Venice. Now, I'm gonna be honest here... Merchant is not one of my favorite Shakespeares. I've found some funny moments in the story but I've never really thought of it as a comedy and although Shylock is most assuredly the villain of the story I've always connected with him more than Antonio who's just a "nice guy".
Shakespeare in the Park in Singapore is a beautiful experience. It's staged at Fort Canning so there's this large white fort around you as you watch the play. Their production values are pretty epic; they had a beautiful two storey LED paneled set designed by Richard Kent, inspired by the architecture of Singapore. I loved how clever all the designs were and the fact the stage had a water feature was pretty mind blowing. The lighting by Rick Fisher was beautiful and handled all the troubles of outdoor theatre with ease. I loved his use of the color red to punctuate important moments in the story.
Shylock and all the Jewish characters in the play were played by Indian actors. I thought this was a very interesting concept and made a very clear distinction of social status within the narrative. Remesh Panicker as Shylock was amazing. He had a beautiful timbre in his voice, very reminiscent of Morgan Freeman. I could have listened to him all night. Krissy Jesudason as Jessica and Richard Corgan as Gratiano were also standouts in the cast. It was amazing to me how these supporting parts came to life on stage in ways I had never seen before. There was double casting in the production but I didn't even notice until I looked at my program - the actors who played double roles were costumed very well and did very good voice work. They were unrecognizable as the two different parts - a very impressive feat as a performer.
I also enjoyed the movement aspect of the production; it really set the stage and helped us establish the story in modern Singapore. However, I thought the first one was a bit long. Original music composed by Ruth Ling was really spectacular and created a beautiful soundscape for the play. It was something like EDM meets Bollywood.
The night we attended Shakespeare in the Park over 1,000 people were there. We were told that 30,000 people attend the festival each year over the run. It was a beautiful night under the stars watching theatre with a picnic. We recently had our first Shakespeare in the Port in Hong Kong. I'm hoping in seven years we can have a production as good as the one I just saw presented in Singapore.
If you have a chance to fly to Singapore for the weekend and check out Merchant, I highly recommend it. It's playing for one more weekend and is a beautiful production of outdoor theatre. You can find out more at their ticketing page or on Singapore Rep's Facebook page.
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