All the world’s a stage | 26 April 2018

How to stage Shakespeare on air and bring the text to life without the benefit of set, costumes, choreography and all the physical business of a theatrical performance? That’s the question faced by drama directors on radio, and Emma Harding in particular whose adaptation of The Merchant of Venice was broadcast last Sunday on Radio 3. Updated to 2008, just as the financial crash was beginning to impact on individual lives, the play opens with the pulsating beat of a track from the contemporary charts (music and the odd bit of additional dialogue being the only way to indicate setting). For yes, shock horror, in this version of the play Antonio and his merchant banker friends order lattes in a noisy coffee bar. The barista who serves them addresses them by name to help us know who’s who. ‘Shakespeare doesn’t name-check enough for radio,’ says Harding. And we begin not with Antonio saying ‘I know not why I am so sad’ but with his curses on Shylock, the ‘cut-throat dog’.

Scenes have had to be cut to accommodate the demands of the broadcast schedule (the play runs for two straight hours in the Drama on 3 slot). There are only five days to rehearse and record the play (plus an initial read-through with all the cast) and the additional music was done in-house to keep the budget down. Harding herself wrote the music for ‘Tell me where is fancy bred’ (sung by Kerry Gooderson, who plays Nerissa).

Would she not prefer to work in theatre? I would love to, says Harding, who misses the ‘physical manifestation’ of drama, and the time to explore the text (cast and stage staff have six weeks of rehearsal at the Royal Shakespeare Company).