The Merchant of Venice

National Theatre

Cast & Crew

Cast

Observations

1. On 17^th January 2019 at 10:28 p.m., benenson noted:

   The name of the cantor who sings the kaddish after Shylock’s forced to renounce his Jewish faith is not given in the credits, but I believe it was the New London Synagogue’s cantor – a Mr Rothschild (I don’t know his first name) who was the most outstanding baritone. The synagogue he belonged to was led by the late and great Rabbi Dr Louis Jacobs. It has to be said that so brilliant was Olivier’s portrayal and the entire Edwardian style of the production, that following Shylock’s failure in court, there was very little interest in anything after his suggested or metaphoric suicide (offstage) – as a result of the profundity of the kaddish sung.

2. On 18^th March 2021 at 10:32 p.m., PBrooke2021 noted:

   In 1970 when I was 16 years old, I flew from Canada to spend the summer with my grandparents in Southampton. While there I also took a side trip to London, where I stayed with a friend of my mother’s who had served with her in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) during the war. One morning while having breakfast we saw a notice in the paper that Standing Room tickets for “The Merchant Of Venice” at the Old Vic would go on sale the next morning. Her husband Fred and I went to the Old Vic early, got tickets, and then went to the play. We saw the first act from Standing Room, then went to the bar during intermission. Upon returning, when the play started I looked down near the stage and noticed two empty seats about 10 rows from the stage, on the centre aisle. I pointed this out to Fred, and he whispered “Let’s go down and take them. Worst that can happen is we’ll get kicked out”. So we snuck down and took the seats. To our great luck––– the people never returned! We got prime cheap seats at the Old Vic to watch Laurence Olivier and the rest of the cast in this wonderful production. It was an amazing theatrical experience which I have never topped in my entire life, and I doubt that I ever will. I can still hear Olivier’s voice filling the entire theatre with his cries. What an actor he was!

If you have an interesting observation or anecdote about this production that you think others may be interested in, please sign in in order to record it here.