INTERVIEW "THIS IS US, WHICH IS UGLY": A MERCHANT FOR HERE AND NOW ARIN ARBUS AND JOHN DOUGL AS THOMPSON IN CONVERSATION WITH AYANNA THOMPSON
Shirine Babb (Nerissa), Graham Winton (Salerio), John Douglas Thompson (Shylock), Sanjit De Silva (Bassanio), Alfredo Narciso (Antonio), Nate Miller (Jailer). Photo by Henry Grossman.
M
idway through rehearsals for The Merchant of Venice, Ayanna Thompson of Theatre for a New Audience’s Council of Scholars (and a Consulting Scholar on the production) spoke via Zoom with director Arin Arbus and actor John Douglas Thompson. AYANNA THOMPSON What was the genesis
of this production? I know you two have worked together several times over the years. When did this first percolate up to the surface? And what were your initial thoughts about it? JOHN DOUGLAS THOMPSON It started with—we
did Othello together, what was that? 2008? ARIN ARBUS 2008 and ’09, yeah. JOHN DOUGLAS THOMPSON And there was a
point in time, maybe four or five years ago, I was interested in doing it again. Or doing a production of Othello with some similar cast, just taking another shot at it. And that wasn’t able to happen. And then, we—partially me and partially Jeffrey 10
T H E AT R E F O R A N E W A U D I E N C E 360° S E R I E S
[Horowitz] and partially Arin—we came up with this idea, “Well, what about Merchant of Venice? What about Shylock?” And it was something that I’d been interested in playing because I had played it before, but like 25 years ago. And there’s a similarity in character, to me, between Othello and Shylock in the nature of their otherness. AYANNA THOMPSON And Arin, what attracted
you to that proposition? ARIN ARBUS I think it’s a really good role for
John. I was really excited by the idea, just in terms of embodying the person who says the words that are in this play. I could immediately imagine John being great. I also didn’t know what it would mean to have a Black man in that role. And that was exciting to me. So, I was immediately really intrigued by the idea. AYANNA THOMPSON And what do you think the
production brings to this moment in 2022? Why do you think this is an important play for us to return to now?
