PRINCIPAL CAST: Kirsty Besterman (Portia); Phil Cumbus (Bassanio); John McEnery (Shylock); Dale Rapley (Antonio).

This production ran from 28 June - 6 October, according to Theatre Record.

"Rebecca Gatward's accident-prone production had a delayed opening after losing its Portia [Michelle Duncan]; then halfway through the press night, after an extended interval, it lost its Gratiano to a gastric virus....Gatward's play - despite the presence of its very own Rialto Bridge - often seems more Canary Wharf than Venice. Liz Cooke's clever costumes are 17th century via the pinstripes of the modern city slicker, and Antonio's young friends exclude a shallow, braying confidence."  ~ Lyn Gardner, The Guardian, 30 June 2007

"The Venetian world described by Shakespeare is a harsh, prejudice-filled one. Rebecca Gatward's spirited and funny - sometimes uncomfortably funny - production pulls no punches in this respect. Her Christian merchants are a complacent, loathsome lot, espcially Dale Rapley's Antonio. And the foreigners are little better: Christopher Obi's Prince of Morocco blunders absurdly, while Philip Bird's Prince of Aragon is a close relative of Manuel from Fawlty Towers."  ~ Robert Shore, Time Out London, 4 July 2007, in Theatre Record 2007, Issue 13