Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Ray Fearon, Colin Morgan, Hayley Atwell, Andrew Scott, Ryan Whittle, Neerja Naik, Ryan Early, Chris Lew Kum Hoi, Lauren Cornelius, Luke Bailey, Kerry Gooderson, Stefan Adegbola, Javier Marzan, Neil McCaul, Clive Hayward, Rupert Holliday-Evans.

Long regarded in the first folio of William Shakespeare’s works as perhaps nothing more than a romantic comedy, it is with fresh eyes in this more discerning and in part justly cynical age to look upon The Merchant of Venice as a problem play, one that deals with the idea of outspoken racism, of anti-Semitism and even inward contempt and intolerance towards a man of another faith, using his debt in which to berate him consciously for his words and supposed lack of loyalty to his God.