The Royal Shakespeare Company will be bringing ‘The Merchant of Venice’ to Las Vegas this spring and seasoned and acclaimed actor Sir Patrick Stewart will be reprising his performance as the “pound-of-flesh”-demanding Jewish loan shark Shylock in what appears to be a modern, outrageous and irreverent take on the famous Shakespearean play as directed by Rupert Goold. The production will premiere in Sin City on May 13, 2011.
Stewart just recently wrapped up work in the David Mamet play ‘A Life in the Theatre’, where he worked alongside T.R. Knight. A multi-time acclaimed actor, Sir Patrick has earned honors from the Olivier Awards and the Tony Awards for his performances in various productions, such as in Broadway’s ‘The Ride Down Mt. Morgan’, ‘The Caretaker’, ‘The Tempest’, a solo-act performance in ‘A Christmas Carol’, the 2009 West End staging of ‘Waiting for Godot’ alongside Sir Ian McKellen, and the Rupert Goold-helmed Broadway revival of ‘Macbeth’ in 2008.
His upcoming performance in ‘Venice’ won’t be his first work for the Royal Shakespeare Company, as he had previously appeared in the company’s showcase of ‘Hamlet’, where his astounding performance as both Claudius and The Ghost won him an Olivier Award. The role of Shylock is no new territory for him either, apart from playing the role in the 1978 production, he wrote and starred in the monologue ‘Shylock: Shakespeare’s Alien’, a show that presents audiences with a different and interesting perspective of “one of the most commonly reviled characters in Shakespeare”, as the actor puts it.
At present, the Broadway mounting of ‘The Merchant of Venice’, presented by the Public Theatre, is creating buzz thanks to Al Pacino’s impressive performance as Shylock. Rumor also has it that Pacino might tag along for the production’s transfer across the pond next year.
