Bard's Merchant of Venice a dark contemporary parable

The Merchant of Venice
To Sept. 16 | Bard on the Beach, Vanier Park
Tickets & Info: From $21 at bardonthebeach.org
The Merchant of Venice is undoubtedly Shakespeare’s most difficult play for contemporary North American theatres and audiences. Is its portrait of the Jewish moneylender Shylock anti-Semitic, or was Shakespeare just documenting the anti-Semitism of 16th century Venice? 
In the latest take on the play at Bard on the Beach, director Nigel Shawn Williams gives us a