These touches are a token of the extraordinary human richness of Trevor Nunn’s traverse-stage revival of this controversial play at the Cottesloe. Where other recent high-profile productions, have offered intriguing but doctrinaire interpretations, Nunn’s wonderfully detailed and considered account – set in a stylish, minimally evoked 1920s – finds a liberating contradiction and complexity at every turn.
The Shylock here is the magnificent Henry Goodman who, after playing so many prominent self-hating Jews in the contemporary repertoire (Roy Cohn in Angels in America, Phillip Gellburg in Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass) now gets the chance to portray a Jew whose goal in life most certainly isn’t to be accepted as an honorary Gentile but who winds up, in the final sick twist of Venetian justice, being forced to convert to Christianity.An intense little bearded figure, he negotiates a hedonistic Venice full of sponging young Jew-baiting wastrels. In a nice little touch, we see him leaving a tip at the Piazza Cafe, while his Christian enemies pull out empty pockets, leaving David Bamber’s Merchant – sniggered at behind his back for his masochistic gay yearnings – to pick up the tab.This is a Venice where Launcelot Gobbo’s famous routine about the fight between his conscience and the fiend becomes (shades of Cabaret) a romping anti-Semitic nightclub turn into which Goodman’s baffled Shylock unwittingly blunders on the way to his appointment with the Christians.Nunn’s interpretation of the play is everywhere subtle and alive to all sides. It’s significant that Shylock’s Jewish friend, Tubal, here leaves the court in disgust at his irreligious inflexibility, and equally significant that this superb Shylock has to overcome such trembling revulsion that you wonder whether Derbhle Crotty’s captivating Portia needs to intervene to forestall his second knife-wielding attempt.There is a splendid moment when this disguised Portia, trying to complicate Shylock’s legal predicament, has the grace to stumble on the word “mercy”, when she tells him his life lies “in the mercy” of the Duke.

As one who has so recently been proclaiming the virtues of mercy, she needs to sweep this registered anomaly aside.All told, this Merchant is a terrifically rewarding experience.Paul Taylor. This review appeared in February in `Your Money’

“This is the rebirth of Rover, the beginning of a new era for the company.” If I had pounds 10 for every time a Rover executive had uttered those words I’d have enough money to mount a takeover bid for the firm.
“Crucial new model”, “developed without compromise”, “proof that Britain can build a world beater”.. They were all there – the cliches, the rallying cries Some things never change. But fortunately for Rover, some things do change, and the quality of the engineering is one of them.The new 75 is an extremely competent car that deserves to sell well. It is classy, mature and genteel, and should appeal to people who want a quality car but not the Flash Harry badge that can go with it. If BMW is Versace and Audi is Hugo Boss, then the Rover 75 is Austin Reed or top-range M&S.It is the first car developed since the BMW takeover of 1994, and is the first Rover for 20 years that is not just a rebodied, re-engineered Honda. It is aimed at the BMW 3-series and the Audi A4 (small, prestige cars, in other words) and the top-end tinselled Mondeos, Passats and Vectras Mid-size Volvos and Saabs are also a target. The 75 is priced above Passats and Mondeos, in keeping with Rover’s desire to be seen as a premium brand.The ride is soft, and can be a bit floaty over undulating roads Yet the handling is sharp, and the steering feels good..

WITH A fanfare written by the rock musician Dave Stewart and performed by Vanessa-Mae and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Rover yesterday launched the car on which its survival may depend. The Rover 75, a retro-style model that borrows heavily on Rover’s heritage, is the first all-British car it has designed and built from scratch in a quarter of a century. It mixes new technology with old-style accessories such as round dials on the dashboard
Priced at between pounds 18,300 and pounds 26,500 for the top-of-the-range 2.5 Connoisseur, Rover hopes to make 140,000 of the new cars a year, three-quarters of which will be for export.The Royal Philharmonic yesterday gave three live performances of Mr Stewart’s composition, “Arrival” on a specially-constructed stage next to Tower Bridge in London with Vanessa-Mae positioned on top of a Rover 75. The horn-section was provided by 75 Rover 75 cars.Jim Macdonald, managing director of Rover Cars UK, insisted that the hype was justified by the reception the 75 has received. Rover says it has taken 80,000 orders or serious enquiries for the car and anyone walking into a showroom today to buy one will face a three-month waiting list.BMW, Rover’s owner, has invested pounds 700m in the car, which is being built at a new factory at Rover’s Cowley works in Oxford.A pounds 6m television advertising campaign, based around the theme of the reaction created by the Rover 75, began last night.The press launch of the car at last October’s Birmingham Motor Show was a public relations disaster, overshadowed by BMW’s threat to shut the Longbridge car plant unless the unions agreed to 2,500 job losses and new working practices.Yesterday, though the sun was shining, the PR was slick and the only thing Rover had to worry about was Mr Stewart’s unscripted remarks. Asked if he planned to buy a Rover 75, he replied: “I don’t need a car right now.”. UNIVERSITIES ARE discriminating against ethnic minority academics in appointments and promotions, according to the first major study of racism in the higher education job market.