Here is Shakespeare's tale of anti-semetic Venice as you've never seen it!

Opening with a bedroom scene and in defiance of her dead father's decree, Portia and Bassanio are already lovers. Now the heiress of Belmont needs a scheme to deliver her the husband she's chosen whilst maintaning an outward appearance of respectabilty and honour. This adapation could be subtitled Portia: The Complete Bitch, but that would detract from what this new presentation of the play is really about.

Antonio's friends believe either business or love is causing the merchant deep, bitter anguish. But the audience have already seen neither romatic nor materialistic matters trouble the eponymous Itlalian. And it may be that Shylock's knife is the welcome solution to an ethical dilemma that is tearing Antonio apart.

In this very radical adaptation, acheived by re-ordering Shakespeare's lines and innovative direction, the play becomes above all, the merchant's journey through which he confronts his true self.

Interviewed on BBC Radio in 1999, director Stephen Hunt said he devised this adaptation becuase he'd never seen an emotionally satisfying production of The Merchant.

Have you?