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Trafalgar Theatre Productions, Eilene Davidson Productions and Alan Howard, in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company, present the Watford Palace Theatre & HOME Manchester production of

The Merchant of Venice 1936

DUE TO PHENOMENAL DEMAND, RETURNING TO LONDON FOR 4 WEEKS ONLY, PRIOR TO UK TOUR

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Ambition, power and political unrest explode onto the stage in The Merchant of Venice 1936, returning to London’s West End due to phenomenal demand. Starring Tracy-Ann Oberman (EastEnders, Doctor Who) as Shylock, Shakespeare’s classic is transported to 1930s Britain in this “striking and impactful” (Guardian) new production that “makes theatre history” (The Telegraph). It is adapted by Brigid Larmour and Tracy‑Ann Oberman.

Tensions in London’s East End are rising and Shylock, a resilient single mother and hard-working businesswoman, is desperate to protect her daughter’s future. When the charismatic merchant Antonio comes to her for a loan, a high-stakes deal is struck. Will Shylock take her revenge, and who will pay the ultimate price?

If you prick us do we not bleed?

If you poison us do we not die?

And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?

Don’t miss this unforgettable, electrifying new production of The Merchant of Venice, a “fascinating and timely” (Daily Mail) reminder of a key moment in British history.

2 hours including interval.

UK TOUR

28 DEC 2024 – 25 JAN 2025
London Trafalgar Theatre
4 – 8 FEB 2025
Liverpool Playhouse
10 – 15 FEB 2025
Bath Theatre Royal
18 – 22 FEB 2025
Leeds Playhouse
25 FEB – 1 MAR 2025
Salford The Lowry
4 – 8 MAR 2025
Fareham Live
18 – 22 MAR 2025
Cardiff New Theatre
24 – 29 MAR 2025
Southend Palace Theatre
1 – 5 APR 2025
Birmingham Rep Theatre

EXCLUSIVE EDUCATIONAL RATE FOR LONDON

TEACHERS GO FREE

Contact Group Line on help@groupline.com or 020 7206 1174.

For educational rates at regional venues, please contact your local Box Office directly.

VIDEO

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Cast

Shylock

Tracy-Ann Oberman

Extensive theatre credits include: Mother of Him (Park Theatre, Offie Nomination Best Actress); Pinter at The Pinter – Celebration /Party Time (Jamie Lloyd season at The Harold Pinter Theatre); Noises Off (40th anniversary tour and West End); The Windsors (Prince of Wales Theatre); Pack Of Lies (Menier Theatre); Fiddler on the Roof as Golde (Chichester Festival Theatre); Present Laughter (Chichester Festival Theatre); Stepping Out (Vaudeville Theatre); McQueen (Haymarket); Edmond (National Theatre); Boeing-Boeing (Harold Pinter Theatre); Hello and Goodbye (Athol Fugard at Southwark Playhouse); Tamburlaine, The Changeling, Jovial Crew and Macbeth (RSC); Loot (Vaudeville / CFT); Saturday, Sunday and Monday (Chichester Festival Theatre); Two (Minerva CFT).

Television credits include: BBC One anti-fascist thriller Ridley Road; Russell T Davies’ award-winning Channel 4 series, It’s a Sin; Toast of London (National Comedy Award Best Series winner); Toast of Tinseltown (BBC1); After Life (with Ricky Gervais  for Netflix); all seven series of the multi-award winning Friday Night Dinner (Netflix and Channel 4); Sky One’s Code 404 (3 series) opposite Stephen Graham and Daniel Mays; Shakespeare and Hathaway (BBC1); series regular Fiona Miller in New Tricks (BBC); Sandylands (Gold); Midsummer Murders (ITV); Grantchester (ITV); Diane From Accounts (Sky One); Bob Martin (ITV); Murder in Suburbia (ITV); The Last Detective (ITV); Robin Hood (BBC1); Plebs (ITV); Hoff The Record (Sky); Dad’s Army – The Lost Episodes (BBC miniseries); Siblings (Channel 4); Zapped (Channel 4); Big Train (Channel 4); Lenny Henry in Pieces (BBC); Chrissie Watts in EastEnders (NTV nominated Best Actress and Best Newcomer, BBC)  and as Yvonne Hartman in Doctor Who (BBC).

Film credits include: Where is Anne Frank (Ari Folman); Moomins on The Riviera (Mamma Moomin); The Infidel; Filth; Casanova Variations; Night of The Broken; Hector and the Search For Happiness; Marion and Geoff- A Small Summer Party.

She has appeared and written in over 600 radio plays, comedies and sketch shows. As a playwright, she has written a number of well-received Radio 4 plays, including Bette and Joan and Baby Jane; Mrs Robinson I Presume; Rock and Doris and Elizabeth and most recently That Dinner of ‘67 starring Kenneth Branagh, which was nominated for Best Single Drama at BBC Audio Awards. She has just written and recorded her latest BBC Radio 4 play Turning Point: Mae West, in which she plays Mae. Tracy-Ann also originated and co-created Jews. In Their Own Words for the Royal Court Theatre with Vicky Featherstone and Jonathan Freedland.

Antonio/Arragon

Joseph Millson

Theatre Credits IncludeThe Forsyte Saga (Park Theatre);  Noises Off (Theatre Royal Bath, National Tour and Phoenix Theatre); Betrayal (Theatre Royal Bath); Mary Poppins (Prince Edward Theatre); Keith (Arcola Theatre);  Apologia (Trafalgar Studios); The Rover, Much Ado About Nothing, King John, The Dog in the Manger, The House of Desires and Pedro, The Great Pretender (Royal Shakespeare Company); Mr Foote’s Other Leg (Hampstead Theatre and Theatre Royal Haymarket); Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Globe); Rocket to the Moon, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour and Pillars of the Community (National Theatre); Love Never Dies (Adelphi Theatre); The Priory and Fear and Misery (Royal Court Theatre); Judgement Day (Almeida Theatre); Hamlet (Stafford Festival Shakespeare); The Fairy Queen (Glyndebourne Festival Opera); Cinderella (The Old Vic); Richard II (Ludlow Festival and Festival Internacional de Teatro Clásico de Almagro); As You Like It (Peter Hall Company and National and International Tours); The SeagullCold Meat Party (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester); Twelfth Night, Henry V, The Borrowers (Storyhouse, Chester); The Lifted Veil  (National Tour); The Clearing, The Mill on the Floss (Shared Experience); Monogamy (Riverside Studios); Gasping, The Talented Mr Ripley (Palace Theatre, Watford); The Real Inspector Hound/ Black Comedy (Harold Pinter Theatre); David Copperfield (Greenwich Theatre and Crucible Theatre, Sheffield); The Fantasticks (King’s Head Theatre); Artaud at Rodez (Finborough Theatre); The Beaux’ Stratagem (Cannizaro Park Open Air Theatre); Cinderella (Buxton Opera House); Romeo and Juliet, Four Nights in Knaresborough, Salad Days, The Rivals, Loot, The Dramatist and David Copperfield – The Musical (National Tours).

Film Credits Include:  The Amateur, Two Neighbours, Hard Home, Empire of Lies, River Of Blood, Christmas at Plumhill Manor, War Blade, Prancer: A Christmas Tale, Creation Stories, Angel Has Fallen, Dragonheart Vengeance, All the Devil’s Men, Tango One, The Chameleon, The Dead 2: India,  I Give It a Year, Casino Royale, Devil’s Bridge, Telstar, Abraham’s Point, S.N.U.B, Burning Men,  Fyre Rises, Magnificent Eleven.

Television Credits Include: Protection, Moon Knight, Van der Valk, Colosseum, The Chelsea Detective, Endeavour, The Last KingdomCatch-22RansomEight Days That Made RomeBanished, 24: Live Another DayPenny DreadfulGrantchester, Law & Order: UK, Queens of Mystery, Holby City, CampusEnidMacbethAshes to Ashes, SurvivorsThe Sarah Jane AdventuresTalk to Me, Midsomer MurdersReunited, New TricksThe Ghost Squad, Mount PleasantThe RomanticsHarley StreetIn ExileDressing for BreakfastDoctors, EastEnders,  Peak Practice.

Portia

Georgie Fellows

Training: Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Theatre Credits Include: Georgie most recently played the title role in Sappho (Southwark Playhouse); Henry I (Rabble Theatre); The Living Newspaper (Royal Court).

Film and Television Credits Include: Surface (Apple TV+); The Day of the Jackal (Sky); Red, White & Royal Blue (Amazon); Secret Invasion (Marvel/Disney+).

Bassanio

Gavin Fowler

Theatre includes: Henry V (GSC); A Christmas Carol (RSC); Alls Well Ends Well, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Robin Hood (GSC); Dorian Gray (Richmond & Tour); Troilus & Cressida, Salome, The Winters Tale, The Taming of the Shrew (RSC); King Lear (ATG); First Episode (Jermyn Street); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (MGC); The Sydicate, Dr Faustus (Chichester Festival Theatre); Too Much Pressure (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry)

Television includes: Coloseum (October Films) Clan of the Cavebear (Fox); Penny Dreadful Season 1 (Showtime); Margot and Mez and Count Arthur Strong’s Entertainment Game (Talkback Thames).

Film includes: Repeat, The Vintage, Delight, and Neville Rumble

Gavin was a recipient of the Olivier Bursary scheme, previously nominated for an Ian Charleson Award and won Best Actor National Student Drama Festival. He was a member of NYT.

Mary/Nerissa

Evie Hargreaves

Training: Bristol Old Vic Theatre School

Theatre Credits Include: Too Much World At Once (Box Of Tricks); SCRUMPTIOUS! (Beggars Belief Collective); Clomping About (Goofus).

Television Credits Include: Vera (ITV); Virdee (BBC); Doctors (BBC).

Jessica

Gráinne Dromgoole

Training: National Youth Theatre, Oxford School of Drama

Theatre Credits Include: Deadheads (Assembly George Square); Ripe Tomato (VAULT Festival); The Dance of Death (Arcola Theatre); Baby, What Blessings (Old Red Lion Theatre); 39 and Counting (Park Theatre); Walk Swiftly and With Purpose (Theatre503); Romeo and Juliet (Cambridge Arts Theatre).

Radio Credits Include: In the Absence of Geoff (BBC3); The Night They Tried to Kidnap the Prime Minister (BBC4); Crooked House (BBC4).

Gratiano/Police Constable

Xavier Starr

Xavier Starr has just graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Productions since graduating include ‘The Mechanicals Presents… Macbeth or Julius Caesar’ (Play Nicely Theatre), an open air theatre tour of the south of England, and ‘Parablesque’ (Patrick Productions), a short film depicting a series of Kafka short stories.

Lorenzo/Maharajah

Mikhail Sen

Training: Drama Centre

Theatre Credits Include: The Play That Goes Wrong (Duchess Theatre); Troilus and Cressida (Royal Shakespeare Company); Hell Yes I’m Tough Enough (Park Theatre); Finish This (English National Opera); Taj Express (Sadlers Wells, Peacock Theatre, US Tour); Foundation: 1918 (Front of House Theatre Company); Four Play (Eventful, Muscat Oman); Jakhoo Hill (Playpen Theatre Group); Flypaper Trap (Rage Theatre); Legend of Lovers (Theatre Group).

Film Credits Include: Ghanimah (MediaWorx); Code/Switch (Code Switch Productions); The Can (Left Field Pictures); Mango Souffle (Lotus Productions); Troilus and Cressida (Royal Shakespeare Company).

Television Credits Include: House of the Dragon (HBO); Good Karma Hospital (Tiger Aspect/ITV); A Suitable Boy (BBC).

Yuval/The Duke/Balthasar (Portia’s Butler)/Blackshirt (Member of the British Union of Fascists)

Alex Zur

Training: Drama Studio London, East 15 Acting School.

Theatre Credits Include: The Great Gatsby (European Tour); Hamlet (Southwark Playhouse); Macbeth (Young Shakespeare Company); A Level Playing Field (Riverside Studios); Edward II (Greenwich Theatre).

Television /Radio Credits Include: Casualty (BBC Studios); Yentl the Yeshiva Boy (BBC Radio 4); Cucumber (Channel 4).

Stefania (Portia’s Maid)/Blackshirt (Member of the British Union of Fascists)

Elly Roberts

Training: Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama

Film and Television Credits Include: Sex Education (Eleven/Netflix); Black Cake (Hulu/Harpo/Kapital), Girls Night (Margaux Comte).

Creative

Adapted by BRIGID LARMOUR and TRACY-ANN OBERMAN

BRIGID LARMOUR

Director

Brigid Larmour is an experienced director of Shakespeare and Jacobean text, and is Associate Artistic Director of Patsy Rodenburg Associates, where she teaches directing and playing Shakespeare, text work for actors, and stagecraft. – patsyrodenburg.co.uk

A producer, director, dramaturg, teacher and cultural leader with extensive experience in the subsidised and commercial theatre and television, she recently stepped down after 17 years as Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Watford Palace Theatre. She invited Rifco Theatre, tiata fahodzi and other companies and freelancers to become Creative Associates of Watford Palace, co-producing their work, and produced or directed new plays by Timberlake Wertenbaker, Arinze Kene, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Mike Bartlett, Pravesh Kumar, Tom Wells, Zodwa Nyoni, Charlotte Keatley and Marks and Gran, among others.

From 1998 to 2006 she was Artistic Director of West End company Act Productions, and adviser to BBC4 Plays. From 1993 to 1998 she directed a series of promenade Shakespeares, Shakespeare Unplugged, for RNT Education. From 1989 to 1994 she was Artistic Director of Contact Theatre, Manchester, commissioning the first British plays responding to the rave scene (Excess/XS), and the implications of virtual reality (Strange Attractors, a multimedia promenade production in association with Granada TV, by Manchester poet Kevin Fegan). As Associate Director at Contact she championed and directed Charlotte Keatley’s game-changing My Mother Said I Never Should; having been rejected by all the major new writing theatres, it was then produced around the world – making Keatley the most performed female playwright after Agatha Christie! – and became a GCSE set text. Her 1980 Edinburgh Fringe production of The Roaring Girl brought this Jacobean comedy back into the UK repertoire and it has since been produced twice by the RSC. She trained at the RSC, and as a studio director at Granada TV. Her 2022 Pitlochry Festival Theatre/Watford Palace production of Little Women, adapted by Anne-Marie Casey, is revived at HOME in Manchester for Christmas 2024.

TRACY-ANN OBERMAN

Associate Director

Extensive theatre credits include: Mother of Him (Park Theatre, Offie Nomination Best Actress); Pinter at The Pinter - Celebration /Party Time (Jamie Lloyd season at The Harold Pinter Theatre); Noises Off (40th anniversary tour and West End); The Windsors (Prince of Wales Theatre); Pack Of Lies (Menier Theatre); Fiddler on the Roof as Golde (Chichester Festival Theatre); Present Laughter (Chichester Festival Theatre); Stepping Out (Vaudeville Theatre); McQueen (Haymarket); Edmond (National Theatre); Boeing-Boeing (Harold Pinter Theatre); Hello and Goodbye (Athol Fugard at Southwark Playhouse); Tamburlaine, The Changeling, Jovial Crew and Macbeth (RSC); Loot (Vaudeville / CFT); Saturday, Sunday and Monday (Chichester Festival Theatre); Two (Minerva CFT).

Television credits include: BBC One anti-fascist thriller Ridley Road; Russell T Davies’ award-winning Channel 4 series, It’s a Sin; Toast of London (National Comedy Award Best Series winner); Toast of Tinseltown (BBC1); After Life (with Ricky Gervais  for Netflix); all seven series of the multi-award winning Friday Night Dinner (Netflix and Channel 4); Sky One’s Code 404 (3 series) opposite Stephen Graham and Daniel Mays; Shakespeare and Hathaway (BBC1); series regular Fiona Miller in New Tricks (BBC); Sandylands (Gold); Midsummer Murders (ITV); Grantchester (ITV); Diane From Accounts (Sky One); Bob Martin (ITV); Murder in Suburbia (ITV); The Last Detective (ITV); Robin Hood (BBC1); Plebs (ITV); Hoff The Record (Sky); Dad’s Army - The Lost Episodes (BBC miniseries); Siblings (Channel 4); Zapped (Channel 4); Big Train (Channel 4); Lenny Henry in Pieces (BBC); Chrissie Watts in EastEnders (NTV nominated Best Actress and Best Newcomer, BBC)  and as Yvonne Hartman in Doctor Who (BBC).

Film credits include: Where is Anne Frank (Ari Folman); Moomins on The Riviera (Mamma Moomin); The Infidel; Filth; Casanova Variations; Night of The Broken; Hector and the Search For Happiness; Marion and Geoff- A Small Summer Party.

She has appeared and written in over 600 radio plays, comedies and sketch shows. As a playwright, she has written a number of well-received Radio 4 plays, including Bette and Joan and Baby Jane; Mrs Robinson I Presume; Rock and Doris and Elizabeth and most recently That Dinner of ‘67 starring Kenneth Branagh, which was nominated for Best Single Drama at BBC Audio Awards. She has just written and recorded her latest BBC Radio 4 play Turning Point: Mae West, in which she plays Mae. Tracy-Ann also originated and co-created Jews. In Their Own Words for the Royal Court Theatre with Vicky Featherstone and Jonathan Freedland.

Liz Cooke

Costume & Set Designer

Rory Beaton

Lighting Designer

Erran Baron Cohen

Composer

Sarah Weltman

Sound Designer

Annabel Arden & Richard Katz

Artistic Associates

Matt Ledbury

Production Manager

Greta Zabulyte

Video Editor