Merchant of Venice comes alive at KJC

Adiba
II Sem JPCs

Of all the numerous art forms, plays can be considered as a live form of art. It is precisely because of this reason that plays can have a great impact on its audience. Recently I got a wonderful opportunity to watch a play which was enacted by our very own Jayantians at SKE Auditorium.

It is the16th-Century play; titled The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare was beautifully enacted by the students of the Erudite Club of Kristu Jayanti College on Jan 3, 2018.

The play was put together by 67 students. The students had practised it for over two months. The time and hard work invested by them paid off 100%, it was a grand success, as the audience gave a standing ovation at the end of the play.

The play touched on themes such as greed and generosity, love and friendship which were portrayed by the talented cast. Some of the cast members captured the audience’ attention and left them speechless with the perfect re-enactment of the emotions and dialogues from Shakespeare’s play. The character that impressed me the most was the character of Shylock- a Jew. As the play unfolded Shylock was seen to be the villain and is portrayed as being cold, unbending, and evil. His character was glorified by Joel Lewis. The dialogues were delivered with true emotion and passion by him, which left the audience awestruck.

One of the greatest speeches ‘The quality of mercy’ was also recited by Rebecca who played the role of Portia. The speech was delivered with an intense emotion. These passionate performances left the audience feeling like they were truly present in the court of Venice.

The friendship of Bassanio and Antonio was displayed brilliantly by Tayyab and Bok. Some more special mentions of the characters that really grabbed the audience’ attention is the prince of Morocco that was played by Pranav K Tharun, Salario by Sana M Joseph, and Jessica by Leah; finally Solanio by Steffi.

The excellent acting by the cast is commendable; their hard work was evident at every step, the costumes suited the theme and characters perfectly. Other worthy mention is the lighting; the timely drop of spotlights in between was the icing on the cake.

The script of the play was edited and directed in a very apt manner by Demitruis and Nisha Eapen with the help of Prof. Reena, the faculty-in-charge.

Overall the entire team that put together the play did a spectacular job, so much so that the play was re-enacted on March 1, 2018, which was also a grand success.