During the rest of 1932 Gielgud played in a new piece, "Musical Chairs" by Ronald Mackenzie, and directed one new and one classic play, "Strange Orchestra" by Rodney Ackland in the West End, and "The Merchant of Venice" at the Old Vic, with Malcolm Keen as Shylock and Ashcroft as Portia. In 1932 he starred in "Richard of Bordeaux" by Elizabeth MacKintosh. This, a retelling in modern language of the events of "Richard II", was greeted as the most successful historical play since Shaw's "Saint Joan" nine years earlier, more faithful to the events than Shakespeare had been. After an uncertain start in the West End it rapidly became a sell-out hit and played in London and on tour over the next three years.