Gratiano

Bassanio has been murdered and, under suspicion, Gratiano is forced to revisit his Fascist past. He was never the hero – just a minor character, the plucky comic relief – but he never thought he played the villain. In a challenging sequel to William Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice’ we explore the politics of prejudice in the 20th Century. Amongst the turmoil of post war Italy we read between the lines of Shakespeare’s classic tale, examine the true nature of the characters, and ask just how Mussolini managed to use democracy to turn a people against themselves.