Eric Paterniani in The Merchant Of Venice

Eric Paterniani is playing Launcelot Gobbo in The Merchant Of Venice, one of Shakespeare's most problematic works for Shakespeare in the Parking Lot directed by Ezra Barnes. In the play, Renaissance motifs of masculine friendship and romantic love are portrayed in contrast to the bitter inhumanity of the moneylender Shylock, whose misfortunes--as a victim of blatant anti-Semitism--are presented so as to arouse understanding and sympathy. The judgment of Shylock as victim or villain confounds, as does the near-impossibility of handling the play's issues in the form of a romantic comedy.