The Merchant of Venice

PART I
I An Elizabethan Merchant: performance and context
II Henry Irving and the great tradition
III Wayward genius in the high temple of bardolotry: Theodore Komisarjevsky
IV Aesthetes in a rugger club: Jonathan Miller and Laurence Olivier
V The BBC Merchant: diminishing returns
VI Cultural stereotyping and audience response: Bill Alexander and Antony Sher
VII Shylock and the pressures of history

PART II
Segue The Merchant of Venice: pressures of war, ideology, and the crises of late capitalism
I Magical spectacles and nightmarish times: Max Reinhardt's productions of The Merchant of Venice
II Peter Zadek's challenges to the post-war German legacy of The Merchant of Venice
III A post-Holocaust balancing act: The Merchant of Venice directed by Trevor Nunn at the National Theatre, London (1999)
IV Desperate outsiders in a money-drunk world: The Merchant of Venice directed by Daniel Sullivan (2010) and Rupert Goold (2011)
V Crises of the new millennium: The Merchant of Venice directed by Robert Sturua (2000) and Edward Hall (2009)
VI The Merchant of Venice on film
VII The search for justice: The Merchant of Venice in Mandatory Palestine (1936) and the Venetian Ghetto (2016)

Appendix A Some significant twentieth- and twenty-first century productions of The Merchant of Venice
Appendix B Major actors and creative staff for productions discussed
Bibliography
Index -- .