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Show l 1983: looking ahead withantfctyation hold on France. "The Merchant of Venice" contains elements of both comedy and tragedy, as well as romance. "Its theme is money, and the two main characters are both so strong that no audience can resist them. Portia the heiress and Shylock the moneylender together create an extraordinary ex-traordinary play. Written during a period of anti-Semitism anti-Semitism in England, the story is set in the busy commercial city of Venice where Antonio, a welathy merchant who having lavishly aided his friend Bassanio's courtship of Antonio's daughter Portia, finds himself in the debt of Shylock the usurer, member of a proud and mistreated race. Shylock is not inclined to be merciful, and Portia's immortal "quality of mercy" speech has been remembered and memorized by generations of Shakespearean students. Shakespeare's play does not make an anti-Semitic statement. Plot justification exists for every acton of Shylock's; the play's statement is about minority pain, and the resolution leaves audiences with much While most patrons of the Utah Shakespearean Festival are enjoying "Romeo and Juliet," "Henry IV, Part I" and "As You Like It," this year, many of those intimately involved with the festival are anxiously looking forward for-ward to 1983. The 1983 festival will open July 1 14 and run through Aug. 27. The three featured plays will be "Henry V," "The Merchant of Venice" and "The Two Gentlemen of Verona." "Henry V" completes the historical trilogy being presented . by the festival. In this climax to the story of Prince Hal, later known as King Henry, the newly-crowned newly-crowned king plans an invasion in-vasion of France to secure him full backing for his claim to the French crown. Shakespeare in the famous lines of the prologue first calls for imagination to aid his description of the "vasty fields of France," and then takes Henry and his forces into the invasion. Falstaff's old cronies accompany the invasion forces; Falstaff himself is dead. During preparations for the great battle Henry learns the common man's point of view regarding kings' quarrels. Actiop builds to the great battle of Agincourt and the stunning English victory which, coupled with Henry's marriage to Katherine, daughter of the French dauphin, secures Henry's to think about. "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" is a comedy from Shakespeare's early period. It is a young. man's play about love and the young. The principal subjects of the comedy, love and friendship, dominate the action. The plot concerns Proteus, who having left his faithful Julia behind him in Verona, falls in love with Silvia, beloved of his best friend Valentine, and thus becomes a traitor to both love and friendship. Love's machinations and their consequences are not confined solely to the lour young lovers, but surrounding characters provide their views of love as well. A "wailful sonnet" is sung under Silvia's window, win-dow, originating the lovely song, "Who is Silvia? What is she? That all our swains commend her?" II there is a moral to the play, it is that as the characters prove time and time again, love can turn a rational human being into an irrational, and often ridiculous, being. Also, the popular. "Monarchs of England" will continue. The 1983 "Monarchs" will again be presented in the auditorium theater with the traditional format of scripted dialogues from the plays of Shakespeare, lavish costming and traditional music from the court of the monarch being featured. '"W JE l r l J J& The Adams Memorial Theater |