Today’s Matinee At 2:00

This afternoon’s matinee will be William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant Of Venice”.

The production has not yet had an official opening. As a consequence, The Stratford Festival has not yet released photographs of the production.

The production must be a troubled one. The Stratford Festival “Merchant Of Venice” was originally scheduled to open in July, but the opening was considerably postponed. Unless further delayed, the production is now scheduled to open in another week—and a mid-August opening is very late for a major Stratford Festival production (Stratford Festival productions generally begin opening in April and generally conclude opening in July).

We will, in effect, be attending a preview performance this afternoon, not exactly what we had anticipated when we had acquired our (full-price) tickets back in June—and tickets for Stratford Festival performances are by no means inexpensive.

We have had bad luck with “The Merchant Of Venice”.

We last saw “The Merchant Of Venice” five years ago this month in the other Stratford—Stratford-Upon-Avon—in a Royal Shakespeare Company production. The 2008 RSC “Merchant Of Venice” had been inept if not dismal. The entire performance, we had considered walking out.

We hope not to encounter something similar this afternoon.