RUSSIAN AND WESTERN PRODUCTIONS OF "THE MERCHANT OF VENICE": SOME PROBLEMS OF STAGING

Authors turn to the creativity of one of the classics of world literature, to Shakespeare and the problem of his plays stagings in the modern theatre. Authors underline that according the different directors accents "The Merchant of Venice" can be staged in completely new way, facing the actual challenges of modernity. Directors can use different effects to achieve such a result, but the canonic text remains the same. The certain timeline of productions of the XXth century is created and different directors' approaches are shown The authors attention is also focused on the recent Russian productions of A. Zhitinkin and R. Surua. Both of them are completely different, but still bear some common traits. The authors show how the post-modern theatre can transform and interpret the classical text, enrich it with the modern problems. This research shows how the productions of "The Merchant of Venice" are combined with the problems of antisemitism, intolerance, organized crime, etc.