The extremes to which directors go when introducing new perspectives on William Shakespeare's plays often approach the jaw-dropping. Few, however, have gone as far as Edward Hall -- and the all-male Propeller troupe -- has with
The Merchant of Venice, now at BAM for a limited run. The production looks like what the inmates on the famed HBO television series Oz might have come up with had they decided to put on the Bard's still-controversial play -- and the result will delight some audiences and totally alienate others.

In Merchant, Jewish moneylender Shylock (Richard Clothier) comes up against crusading Portia (Kelsey Brookfield) over a breach of contract, wherein a pound of flesh is brut[...]