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  • The Guardian

    If a Shakespeare play is racist or antisemitic, is it OK to change the ending?

    An Australian production of Merchant of Venice changes the final scene, adding completely new phrases. It’s profoundly affecting – but is it right?
    by Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore Nov 03, 2017 4 minutes
    Mitchel Butel and Felicity McKay in Bell Shakespeare’s production of The Merchant of Venice at the Sydney Opera House. Photograph: Prudence Upton

    It’s the last scene of The Merchant of Venice and the Christians are celebrating. They have love, youth and wealth on their side. Best of all, they have outsmarted “the Jew”. Not only does Shylock not get his pound of flesh, but he is forced to convert – his kippah brutally ripped off his head – and sign away his fortune to his daughter Jessica, who has turned her back on her family to elope.

    While the group cavorts around the Sydney Opera House stage with giddy, ecstatic abandon, Jessica goes quiet. She bursts into tears, sinks to the floor and asks: “What have I

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