Custom Made Theatre’s poster of The Mer-chant of Venice telegraphs their updating of this true classic to Wall Street: a large foot about to crush a running businessman. Puzzlingly, one version depicts a man’s foot about to decimate the fleeing fellow, while another shows a high-heeled woman’s foot about to land. So that begs the question: will Custom Made’s Shylock be a Mr. or a Ms.? To find out, go to Gough Street Playhouse and treat yourself to some of the world’s most famous iambic pentameter. Custom Made says this is Mad Men meets American Psycho, but for the bloodthirsty among you: Brett Ellis’s guy cuts up bodies all over the place, and in Merchant, Shylock never does get his pound of flesh.
Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice’: Gough Street Playhouse, 1620 Gough Street (btw. Pine & Bush), Thursday–Sunday, July 6–August 5, $25–$32, 510-207-5774, www.custommade.org
— E. Baron
