The Merchant of Venice Shakespeare Festival, the play also marked that 500 years had passed since the Venetian Ghetto was instituted. The Merchant of Venice The Merchant of Venice is a 16th-century play written by William Shakespeare in which a merchant in Venice (Antonio) must default on a large loan provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock. It is believed to have been written between 1596 and 1599. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is most remembered for its dramatic scenes, and it is best known for Shylock and the famous
Shakespeare Tavern of six years, The Atlanta Shakespeare Company produced "Romeo and Juliet", "Much Ado about Nothing", "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "The Merchant of Venice", "Twelfth Night", "The Two Gentlemen of Verona", and "The Taming of the Shrew" in the back room at Manuel's, and at the nearby Excelsior Mill, attracting national attention with articles in "The Wall Street Journal", "The New York Times", and coverage by CBS and CNN. In 1990, The Atlanta Shakespeare Company opened the Shakespeare Tavern at 599 Peachtree Street. Since the Tavern opened, The Atlanta Shakespeare Company has produced over 73 plays, presenting 1,600 plus performances, including