Apparently, the BBC has received complaints that the film version of The Merchant of Venice broadcast last Saturday afternoon showed "repeated views of topless women" and "a man groping a woman in a brothel".
I'm certainly stuck on a brothel scene – can't recall it at all – and am pretty unsure about where the topless is supposed to come in. You couldn't have done it in Shakespeare' day as taking off the tops of the female characters would reveal the breastless (more or less) bodies of the boy actors. I don't have an automatic rejection of modern interpretations of Shakespeare's plays, but I do think that they should be text-led.
I also wonder whether semi-nudity is essential especially early on a Saturday afternoon.
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Hmm...did not happen in our secondary school version..headteacher Miss H would never have allowed THAT!!
Seriously though too much 'interpretation' can change a play totally! I did not see the film so not sure where it would have been seen..Antonio and Bassanio out on the town maybe?
Out of interest, I looked this up and apparently 'the scenes are thought to have been included in the film for reasons of historical accuracy'!
(No explanation of how a brothel got into the play...
)
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