The merchant of Venice : a guide to the text and its theatrical life Christopher McCullough This handbook raises questions appertaining to the cultural, historical and critical contexts of the play, while having as its primary focus the ply as theatrical performance. Christopher McCullough addresses a debate about the ways by which we begin to understand how culture is made, and recognizes the notion that there is never an end to the process of making and remaking. We need to be able to understand how The Merchant of Venice was of its age, and how, without necessarily 'being for all ages' in any essentialist sense, it is remade time and time again. The guiding commentary introduces each sense with a general consideration of its overall effect, before exploring the text line by line. This central component follows on from an account of the play's textual history and an introduction to the intellectual and cultural context of the composition of the drama. McCullough also considers significant stage and screen productions of the play, and the volume features his own interview with Sir Anthony Sher, a recent Shylock. In this way, the author addresses the Jewish aspects of the play via the introduction of a voice of practical experience. Including a wide range of critical writings, this is the essential guide to the performative possibilities of one of Shakespeare's most intriguing and problematic dramatic works. Christopher McCullough is Professor of Theatre at the university of Exter. He is a professional director and a member of the editorial board of Theatre History Studies Journal . His publications include Theatre and Europe (1996) and the edited volume Theatre Praxis (1998, also published by Palgrave Macmillan).