Theatre review: The Merchant of Venice(Shakespeare's Globe & tour)

This year's tiny tour returns to the Globe for its final performances, and following the #VotersChoice gimmick of this season I wonder how many times The Merchant of Venice has actually been played in front of an audience before this final scheduled performance - my suspicion was always that Twelfth Night would win most often, and a review of Press Night I read suggested it wiped the floor with the competition then. Having seen the first two shows in the touring company's repertory before they set out, I left for last the story of Bassanio (Luke Brady,) who needs funds to travel to a distant land and take part in a fairytale competition for the hand of the wealthy Portia (Jacqueline Phillps.) His friend Antonio (Russell Layton,) the titular merchant, takes out a loan on Bassanio's behalf, but when he's unable to pay it back a bloody clause inserted into the loan agreement comes back to haunt him.

Theatre review: Twelfth Night (Shakespeare's Globe & tour)

PREVIEW DISCLAIMER: The production is previewing at the Globe prior to a tour.

After a turbulent couple of years for the venue, Michelle Terry has now officially taken over as Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe, and next week I'll be making my first trip to her summer season proper. But first, as well as any innovations of her own she might have planned, there were a couple of Globe favourites that had fallen by the wayside during the Emma Rice years that I'd hoped to see return; I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that Globe To Globe will be back in future years but in the meantime the "tiny" touring shows - small casts of actor-musicians frantically doubling all the roles in some of Shakespeare's best-known plays - are back, but with a twist that's Terry's own: Brendan O'Hea directs a cast of eight in three plays; once the company hits the road they won't know which play they're going to perform until the last minute, leaving it to an audience vote to decide the night's entertainment.