A tale of caution

They say a bad dress rehearsal means that a show will go well on its first night. So does it follow that a damp rehearsal will mean that a show will be bathed in sunlight once it is put in front of an audience? Let's hope so, for as I arrive on location to watch a rehearsal of Creation Theatre's new outdoor production of The Merchant of Venice, a steady drizzle is falling. The actors are expected to brave the elements unprotected, but the set painter, working away in the background, is clad from head to foot in a mackintosh.

A man appears wearing an expensive-looking suit and sporting a solid gold wristwatch. Could this be Shylock or perhaps he is a guest staying at the adjacent Malmaison hotel?

For Creation's Merchant is the first production to be staged on the newly available Oxford Castle site. The area being used, now grassed over, was formerly the prison exercise yard.

The man in the suit begins to speak: "I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you. What news on the Rialto?" It is indeed Shylock.

Leaving the rehearsal, I meet up with David Parrish, Creation's artistic director, who tells me that he first had the idea of staging a play at the castle six years ago when it was still very much a building site. What excited him as he looked around?

"We are always looking for unusual venues," David explains. "This won't be the last unusual venue we go to, I'm sure. But the history of the place, and the fact that it was a prison exercise yard, that in its own right is enough to make it an exciting place.

"Also, we've not done anything bang in the middle of the city centre before, so it's an interesting opportunity for us, in terms of encouraging people who might otherwise be a bit shy. Hopefully, they'll say: It's on the doorstep, let's have a look'."

Behind the stage, the great stone walls of the castle buildings rise into the air. The window frames are now painted a cheerful cream, but the metal bars in front of them are still as solid as they ever were a graphic reminder of the castle's long use as a prison.

It's easy to imagine Hamlet, Macbeth, or King Lear lurking within, the bars keeping enemies out, rather than prisoners in. So why choose The Merchant of Venice?

"Neither Gari Jones, the director, nor I wanted to do something obvious. We did talk in detail about Richard III, and I wouldn't rule out doing Richard III or Hamlet here in the future."

Back at the rehearsal, the cast are making all sorts of guttural sounds into radio mikes. Highly contemporary rock and rap tracks reverberate around the walls. Gari Jones plainly isn't working on a period production.

"It's partly trying to make Shakespeare accessible," said Gari. "That makes you address how you're going to tell the story. I'm very strong on the whole idea of storytelling, I think it's really important. And I don't want people to be alienated by the language either.

"So the production is completely modern, it's 2006. It could be set anywhere, because the whole point of the story is that it is universal. Fascism, which is essentially what the play is about, is rife in most countries, and is actually on the up now. That's why I wanted to do the play. It's a brilliant way of telling a cautionary tale.

"It's really important to investigate where we're at today through Shakespeare's words, and to see how these characters integrate, and what's actually going on inside them. They are very real people. It's extraordinary to discover how real these people can be as we've gone through the process of rehearsing the play. They become people we see on the streets every day."

As for Shylock and his expensive suit and gold watch, Gari expresses the issues this way: "Is it about the fact that he has status and money? Is that the issue? Is that the thing that fuels jealousy, hatred and resentment?

"Or is it that he's of a different race and a different religion, so has a different belief system?"

All of these questions are, of course, at least as relevant today as they were when Shakespeare wrote The Merchant of Venice 400 years ago. Gari's work has been much concerned with plays dealing with issues of the day Guantanamo Bay, for instance and he's very keen to assure me that his productions are designed to allow audiences to make up their own minds about the subjects.

"It may be that I personally believe the opposite to what a playwright is saying."

Meanwhile, back on the rehearsal stage, rock and rap continues to play, although, it must be said, at a very much lower volume level than you would hear at a gig. What has dictated the choice of music tracks?

"All the characters in the play have a very strong visual stamp to help audiences feel that they are seeing people they recognise from outside on the street. Similarly, each character is very much rooted in music.

"In a way, music reflects the kind of person you are the music you're inspired by. So we're using classical, as well as rap and rock. It's very important that it works lyrically as well as atmospherically.

"I think some people are going to be quite surprised by certain things in this production. It's not your average piece of theatre at all, and certainly not your average Shakespeare."

Does this mean that some people won't like it?

"I think the purists won't like it. But I hope people will be open-minded. We're not belittling Shakespeare, we just hoping we can use our experience to make it very, very accessible and contemporary."

Creation Theatre's production of The Merchant of Venice continues at Oxford Castle until August 19. For tickets call 01865 766266 or visit the www.creationtheatre.co.uk website.