After a six-year absence, Arbery Theatre is returning to the Fringe with two challenging and entertaining plays.
A Pound of Flesh takes Shakespeare’s classic play The Merchant of Venice and sends it in very different direction. In the original version Bassanio’s wife Portia saves the life of his friend Antonio, who fears to lose his life in repaying a debt to the moneylender Shylock. In this version Portia cannot come to court and Bassanio and Antonio are forced to confront the consequences of the young man’s greed.
Arbery‘s second play is set in modern Britain follows ÂŁ500 as that sum of money is passed, sometimes willingly, sometimes not, from one person to the next. The twist? The money passed in an endless loop. The second twist? Time moves backwards and forwards between each scene.
Award-winning playwright Martin Foreman writes and directs A Pound of Flesh and came up with the concept of Transfers. That play has been devised by the cast, led by director Michael Robert-Brown. Eleven actors make up the two casts, including Ollie Hiemann, last seen as Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk at Portobello Town Hall, and Shakespeare veteran Danielle Farrow playing Shylock for the first time.
