Bard's high drama in high finance

TO paraphrase Shylock's immortal words, hath not a banker eyes? Hath not a banker hands, organs, affections, passions? If you prick a banker, does he not bleed? If you tickle a banker, does he not laugh? A banker would say yes, but not everyone would agree. And the Singapore Repertory Theatre's contemporary staging of The Merchant of Venice won't help his case either.

The sixth annual Shakespeare in the Park production takes the 16th-century story of Antonio, a Venetian Christian merchant who owes a pound of flesh to Jewish moneylender Shylock, and transposes it to the turbulent financial markets of today.

Venetian merchants are transformed into rapacious stockbrokers and hedge fund managers. Venetian noblewomen morph into trendy trust fund babes. And the Jewish moneylenders, much-reviled in Shakespeare's time, are replaced by modern Indian creditors.