Something special to close our 72nd festival: star of stage and screen Tracy-Ann Oberman performing excerpts from a radical new production of The Merchant of Venice alongside a panel discussion sparked by one of Shakespeare’s most controversial characters. Set in London’s East End in 1936, Ridley Road actor Tracy-Ann is playing Shylock as a widowed single mother and refugee from Russia, running a small business from a cramped house in Cable Street. As well as reading from the adaptation she will be joined by the play’s director Brigid Larmour, artistic director and chief executive of Watford Palace Theatre, as well as lawyer and author Anthony Julius as they discuss matriarchs, misogyny, modern parallels and reframing one of the best-known plays in history. Chaired by critic, columnist and cultural historian Kate Maltby.
