Merchant on Venice

In Shishir Kurup’s Merchant on Venice, Venice, Italy intersects with the Indian Diaspora of Venice Beach, California in a wickedly funny, wildly inventive and politically provacative re-imagining of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. Written in iambic pentameter and vividly colored by Indian, American and Latino pop references, the play transforms Shakespeare’s original by injecting the story with Bollywood musical numbers, L.A. Punk, Hindu-Muslim tensions, and a distinctly American landscape.