The Merchant of Venice be a "happy ending" for the character, as, to a Christian audience, it saves his soul and allows him to enter Heaven. Regardless of what Shakespeare's authorial intent may have been, the play has been made use of by antisemites throughout the play's history. The Nazis used the usurious Shylock for their propaganda. Shortly after Kristallnacht in 1938, "The Merchant of Venice" was broadcast for propagandistic ends over the German airwaves. Productions of the play followed in Lübeck (1938), Berlin (1940), and elsewhere within the Nazi territory. In a series of articles called "Observer", first published in 1785, British playwright
Royal Shakespeare Company for the new Royal Shakespeare and Swan Theatre stages. The 2011-season began with performances of "Macbeth" and a re-imagined lost play "The History of Cardenio". The fiftieth birthday season also featured "The Merchant of Venice" with Sir Patrick Stewart and revivals of some of the RSC's greatest plays, including a new staging of "Marat/Sade". For the London 2012 Festival as part of the Cultural Olympiad, the RSC produced the "World Shakespeare Festival", featuring artists from across the world performing in venues around the UK. In 2013 the company began live screenings of its Shakespeare productions – called Live from Stratford-upon-Avon