Portia

featuring interviews with actor Lynn Collins and University of Notre Dame professor Peter Holland

In The Merchant of Venice, Portia is remarkable for her cleverness and the power she holds, and she’s ostensibly a hero of this story. But her journey is entwined with that of Shylock, the Jewish moneylender whose mistreatment makes Merchant of Venice a deeply troubling play. In this episode, we discuss just how extremely wealthy Portia is, whether or not Portia is likable (and how her likability is often approached differently in scholarship versus in performance), and how an actress may grapple with Portia’s role in Shylock’s ultimate fate.

Guests on this episode are:

• Lynn Collins, who played Portia in the 2004 Merchant of Venice film directed by Michael Radford, starring alongside Joseph Fiennes, Jeremy Irons, and Al Pacino

• Dr. Peter Holland, a professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Notre Dame teaching in both the English department and the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre

This episode contains explicit language and discussion of racism and religious intolerance.