O my Christian ducats!

I found UNC’s performance of The Merchant of Venice to be very good. Going into it with no previous knowledge about the show, it was still very easy to understand what was going on because of the wonderful cast. I didn’t have any trouble finding the plot among all of those “how nows” and “thous”. My personal favorite was Eric Ritter’s performance as Bassanio. The whole show, especially the second half, was absolutely hilarious. They really made Shakespeare come alive. I love the irony of this play and the loopholes. It has quite the dramatic twist.

While the actors were awesome, I’d have to say the star was the set. There was a beautifully painted background, a floating balcony, a fountain, a ship and the stage was raked. I have never before seen an actual performance on a raked stage, it was a very cool effect and it also makes me wonder if the actors fall on it a lot. I really liked how subtle changes on stage put us in a completely different scene. Definitely two thumbs up.