Its performances in Stratford, in a theater built on the banks of Avon, have helped turn the small Oxford Shire into a mecca for tourists, scholars and theater-goers alike.

"I once visited there as a pilgrim in the 1960s and really appreciated the town's cultural atmosphere and the theater works produced by the RSC," said Ying Ruocheng, a renowned Chinese drama artist.

The RSC's excellence will no doubt be witnessed in their new tour production "The Merchant of Venice," which will be staged at the Beijing Poly Theater from Thursday to Sunday and the Shanghai Drama Arts Center from May 31 to June 6.

"Chinese theater-goers should not miss the show as the RSC finally comes to China to perform 'The Merchant of Venice,' one of Shakespeare's most powerful yet most controversial and misunderstood plays," Ying said.

A fascinating study of justice, mercy and devotion, "The Merchant of Venice" has remained controversial for centuries for its portrayal of a mean Jewish moneylender named Shylock.

In order to raise funds for his best friend's dowry, Antonio, a Christian merchant, signs an agreement with Shylock stating that if he is unable to repay the loan, "a pound of flesh" will be cut from his body. Of course, circumstances soon thrust the loan into default and bring Antonio to the point of a knife.

"It is one of Shakespeare's dramas that I like the best. Not only does the play raise the thorny question of what constitutes ethical trading, its disturbing discussion of mutual religious misunderstanding, and the nature of revenge and mercy, seem all too pertinent," said He Qixin, vice-president of Beijing Foreign Studies University and a professor in the English Department.

Since the 1930s, several versions of the play have been performed by both Chinese and foreign companies in Chinese theaters, so it is a familiar story to many Chinese people, He said.

"Yet I still look forward to RSC's performance very much because their production will feature a very original flavor of Shakespeare."

Wu Xiaojiang, famous Chinese drama director, also said: "Besides the charm of Shakespeare's story itself, the RSC has its own merits in producing dramas which is worthy of learning from."

Creative director

According to British news accounts, director Loveday Ingram has created a sensitive and well-thought piece that allows room for the play's inherent complexities.

John Peter of The Sunday Times wrote that Ingram's production is "one of the best RSC touring productions ... Loveday Ingram's production is clear, workmanlike, well paced, well spoken and thoughtful."

Toby Young of The Spectator calls the production an "unashamedly feminist reading of the play."

Director Loveday Ingram makes her Royal Shakespeare Company debut by directing this most complex of Shakespearian comedies.

The young director has already made a significant name for herself beyond the RSC with a string of recent hit productions.

She chose the play, because "I've always been attracted to problem plays, the ones you can't easily quantify as being a comedy or a tragedy."

Though she said it was a problem in terms of staging and design, as well as of plot, as the play falls into two worlds, she successfully transports the audience seamlessly between commerce-driven Venice and the luxuriously removed world of Belmont.

"In approaching the play I wanted to ensure that Belmont and Venice were of equal importance," Ingram continues.

"I wanted to move easily from Venice, which was the brutal center of commerce in the Western world, to Belmont, which is this removed, sensuous and emotional world where two women are trapped by a riddle."

The play also has another notorious problem at its core, its attitude to race. Yet, Ingram does not worry about tackling such potentially sensitive material.

"Once you start digging into the play, the fears disappear," she explains. "Because you are just trying to solve the themes practically. The direction that I've tried to lead the company in is to find out what Shakespeare wrote, and if he's written scenes that are anti-Semitic, then we will play scenes that are anti-Semitic."

Despite conducting extensive research into Judaism and the treatment of Jews in the 17th century, Ingram tried hard not to approach the play with a message, but rather to let the play reveal itself to the actors and then to the audiences.

Strong cast

The production's experienced cast will also be a draw.

Ian Bartholomew will play a strong and virile Shylock: a tense, wiry man with shrewd, cold, tired eyes.

"I've always been a little bit frightened of Shakespeare," Ian Bartholomew said. "This is certainly a role I never thought I'd get a chance to play. I've done a whole range of work from TV to film to musicals, and then in the last couple of years I started to get a real taste for Shakespeare."

Bitten hard by the Shakespeare bug, he has recently played Feste in "Twelfth Night" and Lear in "King Lear," but Shylock is undoubtedly the actor's most exciting classical role so far.

Bartholomew has worked with Loveday Ingram before, and it was Ingram's enthusiasm for his work that brought him to this colossal RSC role.

"For a while I did look at the history of the people who have played this part, and the list is very impressive. I wondered for a moment if I dare to be so presumptive to add my name to the list," he said.

"In the end I decided that it would be a good challenge," he said.

"The Merchant of Venice" certainly contains many parallels with our time and he is sure the play will resonate with contemporary audiences, he said.

"This is a play that is really about what prejudice is, about the fear of the unknown, the terror of things that are different," Bartholomew said. "In the end I would like Shylock to be neither condoned nor condemned, but to be understood."

Performing to a Chinese audience will be even more interesting, he said.

"It's great to be playing to new audiences, many of whom may not even know the story," he said. "I hope that when I bring out the knife in the court scene there will be a moment when the audience gasps, and think I am going to commit a murder. To get the audience really involved in the world of a play is the exciting thing."

Hermione Gulliford's cross-dressing heiress, Portia, is attractive, brisk and cool and holds the stage with ease. She beautifully conveys her character's intelligence and trepidation.

"It's fascinating to me that Shakespeare has given the most exciting arguments of the entire play to a woman to speak. There's no doubt that Shakespeare was all for equality," said Gulliford, the latest RSC actress to tackle one of classical theater's most complex heroines.

Gulliford's excitement about the role also comes from a certainty that despite the 400-year time lapse, Shakespeare's Portia is a woman who willl resonate with modern audiences.

"What particularly interests me about her is that she's a woman who understands human nature," she explains, "and who follows her heart to pursue her lover. In the courtroom she is trying to do something very human: to stop a murder."

"The Merchant of Venice" also contains a great example of the intriguing Shakespearian tradition of cross-dressing, where the feisty heroine ties up her hair and heads off dressed as a man.

In this play, Portia, disguised as a young male lawyer, infiltrates the mighty Venetian justice system, to save her lover's best friend and argue a case for mercy.

Gulliford finds the most thrilling scene in the court, where she shows how her disguise and power liberate Portia from the bonds of her inheritance.

Gulliford first worked with Loveday Ingram in "The Three Sisters."

"Loveday's a terrific director, very open to suggestions," Gulliford said. "She's very focused and calm and doesn't try to put too many concepts in the play but just wants to tell the story. She's very trusting of you as an actress."

The rest of the cast also stands out. Ian Gelder plays a brooding, kind Antonio, long resigned to solitude.

There's an excellent part in the trial scene where Antonio vents a delayed shriek of terror the moment after danger has passed. It emphasizes the selfless courage beforehand of his love for his friend.

Chris Jarman, who performs the Prince of Morocco, one of Portia's unsuccessful suitors, leaps about the stage like an Arabian Knight, and gives the play a boost of comic energy.

Darren Tunstall provides comic relief as the raucous buffoon Launcelot.

(China Daily May 21, 2002)