Every year The British Institute of Florence celebrates Shakespeare with a festival concentrating on one of his plays. This year our series of events and workshops for schools concentrated on The Merchant of Venice. The festival started on Monday 19 April with FESTA theatre company investigating the theme of the 'outsider' through performance of the courtroom scene in which Portia's argument defeats Shylock in his efforts to secure his bond, a pound of flesh cut from Antonio. FESTA performed the scene in costume, concentrating on the figure of Shylock, controversially transferring to the courtroom scene Shylock's 'Hath not a Jew' speech. Lively discussion followed, particularly on the changes of the last 200 years of the portrayal of Shylock, and the reasons for those changes.
On Tuesday 20 April the entire day was given over to a Graduate Conference, Shakespeare and his Contemporaries, showcasing the work of Italian graduate students. Professors Paola Pugliatti (Università degli Studi di Firenze), Keir Elam (Università di Bologna) and Fernando Cioni (Università degli Studi di Firenze) participated. Graduate students from universities all over Italy presented their papers, many concentrated on The Merchant of Venice, in one of the only such forums for them in Italy.
The keynote lecture for the week took place on Wednesday 21 April: Kate McLuskie, Director of the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon, explored the way that Shakespeare plays with ideas of performance in A lover or a tyrant? Performing The Merchant. Unable to fly to Florence because of the ash from the Icelandic volcano, Kate McLuskie gave us her lecture via Skype. Fascinating in itself, particularly for its questions on the gaps in the play, viewing our lecturer on the big screen was a bizarre experience. Later, on the same evening, there was a screening of Michael Radford's 2004 version of The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino in the role of Shylock, dominating this adaptation set in Venice in 1597, when the play was written. A very dark film; Jeremy Irons as Antonio was almost unbearable.
On Thursday 22 the Institute screened a further film, Ernst Lubitsch's sublime comedy To Be or Not to Be (1942), in which Shylock's 'Hath not a Jew' speech is assigned a special place. The film was marvellous, very much enjoyed by the audience and there were lots of laughs.
Following the film was one of the most enjoyable parts of the week: a public reading of the entire play. Everybody is always welcome to come and listen or to join in on the reading. Shakespeare is meant to be read aloud, and without sets, props or costumes the play is read as a group, finding new meaning in the magic of hearing the lines spoken. Most people who come along read in English but the Institute always welcomes people who would like to read in Italian or any other language and this time parts were also read in Italian and German. As always, the excellent Friends of the Library provided a very tasty buffet for this event. We had some very good readers this year and, as always, we all enjoyed the experience of reading aloud and of listening, and thinking over the play we had spent so much time on over the week.
All events during the week took place in the Harold Acton Library of the British Institute of Florence on Lungarno Guicciardini, 9. In the entrance to the Library throughout the week there was an exhibition, The Merchant of Venice: Actors and Scenes, portrayals of Shylock and Portia over the last 200 years and twentieth-century stagings and set designs for the play.
We look forward to seeing you next time in April 2011!
