Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune - BEST OF THEATRE 2007 - “All of Chicago a world-class stage”
A risky, rambunctious, acerbic and highly intelligent piece of new writing, this omnicultural take on the troubled Shakespearean classic introduced us to the work of Shishir Kurup. And Stuart Cardin’s lively, punky, premiere production was a great leap forward for Silk Road and a perfect match for such an insouciant script.
Hedy Weiss, Chicago Tribune, “A bite of the apple, and more”
Silk Road Theatre’s exuberant Bollywoodized production of “Merchant on Venice,” Shishir Kurup’s contemporary take on Shakespeare, with Los Angeles‘ diverse Indian community in the spotlight.
Time Out Chicago Theater staff, Time Out Chicago, “Ten Most Wanted: We pick the year’s best”
In transferring Shakespeare’s Merchant to present-day SoCal, playwright Shishir Kurup gave the Bard a dash of hip-hop flavor and Bollywood flair, and it felt like the most natural thing in the world. Shifting Shakespeare’s Christian-Jew conflict to Hindus and Muslims, Kurup managed to comment on everyday religious discord and the challenge of reconciling traditional values with modern America. Stuart Carden’s production assembled a bevy of too-rarely-seen nonwhite actors, led by fiery Anish Jethmalani as a Shylock tough enough to rival Mike Nussbaum’s.
Venus Zarris, PerformInk, “Emotional Vocabulary Lessons”
Silk Road Theatre Project’s Merchant On Venice took another Shakespearian standard and transformed it into an amusing spectacle of cultural intersections. It was a polemic on theological and ethnic collisions that illuminated the overlooked Hindu-Muslim American communities, thereby emancipating the general perceptions of our all too homogenized body politic.
