Abstract

In his 1987 staging of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice at the Théâtre National de l’Odéon in Paris, Luca Ronconi adopted structuralist principles and thus highlighted the shifts of meaning between love and money, thanks to an original choice and direction of the actors on the one hand, and to the use of implements and machines linked to the trade and industry of Venice, on the other. Within the spirit of the Renaissance these machines were a meaningful addition to the operation of the Italian stage: by cutting and segmenting the scenic image thanks to the positioning of the curtains and frames, Luca Ronconi thus constructs the spectators’ point of focus on the play.