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 would play the villain... In a challenging sequel to William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, this one-man monologue written in a mixture of verse and prose explores 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. This edition was published to coincide with the 2019 tour.