Following a triumphant season on the Criterion Theatre and a sold-out UK tour, Tracy-Ann Oberman (EastEnders, Physician Who, Friday Night time Dinner), is again within the West Finish to reprise her starring function from as the primary British actress to play Shylock within the critically acclaimed manufacturing of The Service provider of Venice 1936 from December this yr.
Opening on the Trafalgar Theatre on 28 December, the restricted season runs till 25 January. This vital, groundbreaking manufacturing will then embark on a second UK tour for eight weeks visiting: Liverpool, Bathtub, Southend, Salford, Fareham, Leeds and Cardiff, culminating in Birmingham on 5 April 2025 – permitting audiences everywhere in the UK the chance to expertise this “deeply related” (Day by day Telegraph) play.
Tracy-Ann Oberman stated: “I’m so delighted that, by fashionable demand, MOV1936 is coming again into the West Finish so quickly after we completed. Demand has been so excessive that I really feel bringing it again, and this time to the gorgeous Trafalgar Theatre after which on a nationwide tour, is important. The message of my feminine Shylock – primarily based on my Nice Grandma, a widow within the East Finish standing as much as Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists, with all her neighbours and others horrified by the message of BUF – feels extra pertinent than ever. The play is about unity, standing collectively in opposition to hatred and the play’s influence has been past my wildest hopes and ambitions for it.”
Ambition, energy and political unrest explode onto the stage on this “hanging and impactful” (The Guardian) manufacturing that “makes theatre historical past” (Day by day Telegraph). This “fascinating and well timed” (Day by day Mail) reimagining sees Shakespeare’s traditional transported to Nineteen Thirties East London in opposition to the backdrop of the Battle of Cable Road. It’s tailored by Brigid Larmour and Tracy-Ann Oberman.
With town on the point of political unrest, fascism sweeping throughout Europe and Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists threatening a paramilitary march by way of the Jewish East Finish, strong-willed single mom Shylock runs a pawnbroking enterprise from her home in Cable Road the place Mosley will march. When charismatic, antisemitic aristocrat Antonio involves her for a mortgage, a high-stakes deal is struck. Will Shylock take her revenge, and who pays the last word value?
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE 1936
London: Trafalgar Theatre 28 December – 25 January
Liverpool: Playhouse Theatre 4 – 8 February
Bathtub: Theatre Royal 11 – 15 February
Southend: Palace Theatre 18 – 22 February
Salford: Lowry 25 February – 1 March
Fareham Stay 4 – 8 March
Leeds: Playhouse Theatre 11 – 15 March
Cardiff: New Theatre 18 – 22 March
Birmingham: Repertory Theatre 1 – 5 April
