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Yasser is a play by Moroccan-born Dutch novelist, playwright and journalist Abdelkader Benali. It was written in 2001, and describes the challenges and adversities faced by a Palestinian actor in playing the role of Shylock in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice .
The play takes place in the dressing room of a provincial theatre in a European country, where character Yasser Mansour is getting ready to go and perform the role of Shylock in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. While preparing for this role, he elaborates on his past in Palestine, his discrimination and the prejudices he faces as an Arab living and working in the West, and the insights into emancipation that performing the role of Shylock have given him.
Yasser is a monologue, taking place in continuous time. The play makes frequent reference to The Merchant of Venice, and on several occasions quotes passages of it, including the "Has not a Jew eyes" speech by Shylock in Shakespeare's original.
Yasser was written for production by De Toneelschuur theatre in Haarlem, the Netherlands, where it opened in September 2001. It won the H. G. van der Vies award for new writing, and was in the official selection for the annual Theaterfestival in 2002. An English production of Yasser, translated by Terry Ezra, opened at the Assembly Rooms on the 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in a production by Anglo-Dutch theatre company Studio Dubbelagent. This production subsequently transferred to the Chopin Theatre, Chicago, in October and November 2008, and to Arcola Theatre, London in 2009.
The Merchant of Venice is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan taken out on behalf of his dear friend, Bassanio, and provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock, with seemingly inevitable fatal consequences.
Jennifer "Gemma" Jones is an English actress. Appearing on both stage and screen, her film appearances include Sense and Sensibility (1995), the Bridget Jones series (2001–2016), the Harry Potter series (2002–2011), You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010), and Ammonite (2020).
Sir Antony Sher was a British actor, writer and theatre director of South African origin. A two-time Laurence Olivier Award winner and a four-time nominee, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982 and toured in many roles, as well as appearing on film and television. In 2001, he starred in his cousin Ronald Harwood's play Mahler's Conversion, and said that the story of a composer sacrificing his faith for his career echoed his own identity struggles.
The Merchant of Venice is a 2004 romantic drama film based on Shakespeare's play of the same name. It is the first full-length sound film in English of Shakespeare's play—other versions are videotaped productions which were made for television, including John Sichel's 1973 version and Jack Gold's 1980 BBC production.
Matheson Alexander Lang was a Canadian-born stage and film actor and playwright. He is best remembered for his theatrical performances in Great Britain in Shakespeare plays.
Scott Wentworth is an American actor and director who immigrated to Canada in 1986.
Abdelkader Benali is a Moroccan-Dutch writer and journalist.
The Maori Merchant of Venice is a 2002 New Zealand drama film in the Māori language, directed by Don Selwyn.
Dominic Mafham is an English stage, film and television actor. He trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
The Merchant of Venice is a 1969 drama short film directed by Orson Welles based on William Shakespeare's play of the same name. While actually completed, it is frequently cited as an unfinished film, though better described as a partially lost film due to the loss of film elements.
Rudolph Schildkraut (27 April 1862 – 15 July 1930) was an Austrian film and theatre actor.
Teunkie Van Der Sluijs is a Dutch-British theatre director, translator of plays, and playwright working predominantly in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, and sporadically in the United States. Born in the Netherlands in 1981, Van Der Sluijs studied Drama at the University of Amsterdam before studying directing at London's Rose Bruford College and training at the National Film and Television School.
Shylock is a monologue in one 80-minute act written by Canadian playwright Mark Leiren-Young. It premiered at Bard on the Beach on August 5, 1996, where it was directed by John Juliani and starred popular Canadian radio host, David Berner. Its American debut was in 1998 at Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Theatre where it was directed by Deborah Block, starred William Leach and was “Barrymore Recommended.” It has since been produced at theatres, Shakespeare Festivals and Fringes throughout Canada and the US, was translated for a production in Denmark and has been staged twice by the original actor, Berner, in Venice. A Czech translation by Jitka Sloupova ran in Prague from 2016-2019 at Divadlo Na Jezerce and starred Milan Kňažko.
Shylock is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice. A Venetian Jewish moneylender, Shylock is the play's principal villain. His defeat and conversion to Christianity form the climax of the story.
The Merchant of Venice is an opera by André Tchaikowsky (1935–1982) to a libretto, based on the Shakespeare play, by John O'Brien. Written between 1968 and 1982, it was first performed in 2013 at the Bregenz Festival. The British premiere was presented by the Welsh National Opera in September 2016.
The Merchant of Venice is a 1961 Australian television adaptation of the play by William Shakespeare that aired on 13 September 1961 in Sydney, and on 25 October 1961 in Melbourne.
Karin Coonrod is an American theater director and writer who teaches at Yale School of Drama. Coonrod is known for her modern adaptations of classic plays by William Shakespeare and other playwrights. She often chooses to direct plays produced from unusual sources such as lesser-known works by notable playwrights, adaptations from non-dramatic sources, and the writings of notable figures in history.
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 focuses on the Jewish Shylock character, that play's principal antagonist.
Alison Mary Fiske was an English actress, who won Actress of the Year in a New Play at the 1977 Laurence Olivier Awards for playing Fish in Dusa, Fish, Stats and Vi. She was also nominated in the 1979 Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for playing Evie in For Services Rendered, and she won awards for her television performance in Helen: A Woman of Today.
The Shylock Suite, Op. 57 is a six-movement work by Gabriel Fauré, first performed in 1890. In addition to four purely orchestral movements it includes two serenades for solo tenor with orchestral accompaniment. The composer constructed the suite from incidental music he had written the previous year for Edmond Haraucourt's play Shylock, an adaptation of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, presented at the Théâtre de l'Odéon in Paris. The theatre music had been written for a small orchestra, and Fauré greatly expanded the orchestration for the concert suite.