In Shakespeare's classic comedy, Antonio is a young man who pledges a pound of his own flesh to a moneylender, Shylock (played by Oscar winner Al Pacino), so a friend can woo his lady-love in style. Antonio learns a hard lesson in loyalty, humanity, friendship and prejudice when the revenge-seeking Shylock comes to collect and he is unable to pay.
Portia is a rich heiress whose dead father left some eccentric instructions regarding her marriage; she must marry the man who solves a riddle her father has left behind. Bassanio wants to try his hand and woo the beautiful Portia, but he doesn’t have the money to get his foot in the door of her fancy estate. So he borrows the money from Jewish moneylender Shylock using the credit of a good friend, the merchant Antonio. When Antonio ends up unable to repay the debt, Shylock demands his famous “pound of flesh,” in payment. Add to that the Shakespearean trappings of women disguised as men, Elizabethan (or, in the case of this production, Edwardian) carousers and lovers stolen away, and all’s well that ends well.