The Merchant of Venice remains an ugly play for ugly times
1938 Italy provides the fascist framework for this Invictus staging. With anti-Semitism on the rise in the U.S. and Europe, it might make perfect sense to revisit Shakespeare's most nakedly anti-Semitic work. Yes, Shylock gets that "hath not a Jew eyes?" speech, but anyone who is moved by the suggestion that a Jewish man is human like everyone else is probably not a trustworthy ally to be…