Royal Shakespeare Company The Merchant of Venice (2016)
by William Shakespeare from Opus Arte Productions
presented live at Stratford Upon Avon  Recoded from the DVD release

Run time 138 mins                    
                                                                         Spoken in Shakepeare's English with
                                                                                  English subtitles optional
                                                                Presented in two parts at interval with act break
                                                                    Extra features (13 min.): Telling the story;
                                                                                    Setting the stage
IMDb tt5104678/

Cast and creatives

Directed for the stage by Polly Finlay
Directed for the screen by Robin Lough

Portia                             Patsy Ferran    
Antonio                         James Ballard
Bassanio                       Jacob Fortune Lloyd
Nerisa                            Nadia Albina
Shylock                          Makram J. Khoury
Lancelot Gobbo          Tim Samuels

Full cast and crew in the credits

Summary from IMDb

  A rich merchant, Antonio is depressed for no good reason, until his good friend Bassanio comes to tell him how he's in love with Portia. Portia's father has died and left a very strange will: only the man that picks the correct casket out of three (silver, gold, and lead) can marry her. Bassanio, unfortunately, is strapped for cash with which to go wooing, and Antonio wants to help, so Antonio borrows the money from Shylock, the money-lender. But Shylock has been nursing a grudge against Antonio's insults, and makes unusual terms to the loan. And when Antonio's business fails, those terms threaten his life, and it's up to Bassanio and Portia to save him.

 ( A major flaw at IMDb is listing this play as The Tempest.  That RSC Shakespeare's Tempest I will be able to post soon as well.)

My notes

 Included here are the DVD features provided with the disk for this production.  Casting
is a particular point of interest.  Patsy Ferran (recently seen in the "NTLive Treasure
Island" fund-raiser) and seen as well in her character role in the "Jamestown"  stars as Portia.

Makram J. Khoury is  Shylock.  "Palestinian-Israeli actor Makram Khoury was the youngest artist and the first Arab to win the Israel Prize, the highest artistic honor in the country. He is one of Israel's most respected actors, playing leads in all the major theatres as well as acting in films and on television. Khoury is an actor's actor: subtle, powerful and protean."  -- from IMDb

Khoury is interviewed in these extras.

 The set for the RSC is also profiled in a separate featurette.

 In the my collection is another Merchant of Venice.  That one is set in Pre-War Nazi
Germany directed by Trevor Nunn.  Both productions have highlights that make them
exceptional. (Watch for the cabaret song in the Trevor Nunn production which I will post
soon.)  

 As always, these encodes are just a way for those interested to get them for their
libraries that others may enjoy them.  It's my effort to re-establish these titles for fresh indexing
and easy access.  Subtitles available in your player menus.

  Notes updated for the new index April 30th, 2020