The Merchant (play) The Merchant (play) The Merchant is a 1976 play in two acts by the English dramatist Arnold Wesker. It is based on William Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice", and focus on the Jewish Shylock character, that play's principal antagonist. Wesker began writing the play after seeing a 1973 performance by Laurence Olivier. It premiered in Stockholm in 1976 and was later renamed "Shylock". The play was meant to premiere on Broadway in 1977, but the Broadway production was cancelled due to the death of the plays' lead, multiple Tony Award winner Zero Mostel. Wesker had high hopes that the play
Jessica (The Merchant of Venice) decide that there is no point trying to convert their father to Christianity so he should be executed instead. All this is justified to the audience simply because Floripas converts to Christianity and Laban is a Saracene: Wilson concludes that since "The Merchant of Venice" was a comedy, and since its audience would be used to the conventions of medieval tales, an Elizabethan audience would not be overly concerned with Jessica's filial piety. "Like Floripas and Ferumbras and dozens of other medieval heathens she turned Christian, and that was obviously, and conventionally, the best possible thing she could do." Literary