A romantic chronicle from Shakespeare's comedy
' The Merchant of Venice '
Arranged and produced by Peter Creswell with Fay Compton as Portia
(by permission of Emile Littler ) and Malcolm Keen as Shylock with the BBC Drama Repertory
Company *
Music composed by Richard Hall
' In Belmont is a lady richly left, and she is fair, and, fairer than that word, of wondrous virtues.' So Bassanio described Portia and provided the title for this romantic chronicle from The Merchant of Venice.
Fay Compton and Malcolm Keen will be acting in Shakespeare together not for the first time, for Keen played the King in Hamlet with John Barrymore at the Haymarket in 1925, and Fay Compton was Ophelia in the same production. They played the same parts again in the all-star production of Hamlet at the Haymarket six years later. Their Portia and Shylock will be eagerly awaited by many listeners tonight.