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Nerissa
In the Globe Theatre Company's production of The Merchant of Venice, Nerissa was played by Sonia Ritter.
About Sonia Ritter
Sonia Ritter trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. She has worked with many theatre companies, including the RSC, the Royal National Theatre and the Young Vic. She has also worked extensively in radio and television, most recently in Channel Four's A Dance to the Music of Time.
Click on the numbered links to follow Sonia's journey as she creates and plays the character of Nerissa in the Globe Theatre.
Sonia Ritter - Introduction
The rehearsals for the Globe's 1998 Theatre Season take place in a converted warehouse in O’Meara Street; about 5 minutes walk from the Globe theatre itself. The rehearsal room is very large and has an outline of the Globe stage marked out in tape on the floor; there are also 2 pillars in the room. These arrangements help the actors to prepare for working on the Globe stage. The actors will not rehearse on the Globe stage until the technical rehearsal, although some classes are held on the stage.
Each day each actor will receive his/her ‘call’ which is the time s/he is expected to report for rehearsal. During the rehearsal period an actor's day will vary considerably, an actor may rehearse scenes, attend a class (voice, text and movement) or have a costume fitting with the wardrobe department. A typical day might begin at 10.00am and finish at 6.30pm – sometimes there are also evening calls.
During the rehearsal period (particularly at the beginning) an actor will research his/her character. To help the actors the assistant director will find relevant books, pictures etc. and bring these to rehearsal. Extracts from books and pictures are often stuck onto the rehearsal room walls. Actors will also experiment with using props in rehearsal; these will be rough versions of the final prop and will help them to build the prop into the scene. Similarly some form of rehearsal costume will be worn e.g. long skirts for the women, this will help actors to get used to moving, sitting etc. in their costume. In particular actors will use the actual shoes they will wear in performance during rehearsal. This is to wear the shoes ‘in’, as they are made using Elizabethan techniques and there is no specified ‘left’ and ‘right’ foot. Many actors also feel that wearing the correct shoes helps them to ‘get into’ character.
The companies have 6 weeks of rehearsal before the technical and dress rehearsals Generally the beginning of this period is spent improvising around the text and in development of character; towards the end of these 6 weeks actors will rehearse scenes in detail and run parts of the play. The exact method of working in rehearsal is established and shaped by the director.
Sonia Ritter - Character Notes 1
Sonia has played the role of Nerissa before for the Original Shakespeare Company at Globe Neus. This company work from cue scripts where the actors are only given their part (just as they would have done in Shakespeare's time).
Nerissa is almost never on stage without Portia, her existence is reliant on Portia whose actions affect everything Nerissa does.
As an actor Sonia works very closely with the text, she works from the Arden and the folio edition of the script and has made a cue script for Nerissa.
Nerissa does not have a lot of lines (her longest speech is 10 lines) and she has 63 in total, but listens to approx. 1500. This means that Nerissa is on stage a lot and is a big presence in the play even though she does not dominate the dialogue. Nerissa is essentially a servant, but in many ways does not behave as one; she is Portia's companion who through her work has gained some status in her own right, (a modern comparison might be Princess Diana's butler). Nerissa's world depends on her maintaining this status.
In the first scene Sonia feels that that Nerissa is cheeky, she is having a laugh at the expense of the men who come to view Portia. Does she know which casket contains Portia's portrait?
Sonia has decided that she would like Nerissa to originally have come from outside of Italy, she is exploring developing Nerissa as an Armenian women who has been in Venice for many years in Portia's service. Sonia has been doing some research on Aremnians and have discovered they are an old race one of the first tribal people to be converted to Christianity. Sonia is trying to build some of this ethnicity into her portrayal of Nerissa and to reflect it in her costume, speech and movement.
Sonia feels that Nerissa is intelligent, she has a developed philosophy of life and in parts of the play speaks in aphorisms. The only act that Nerissa undertakes independently of Portia is at the end of the play when she demands that Gratiano produce her ring – up to this point she has always followed Portia, even her acceptance of Gratiano's proposal is dependant on Portia's fortunes.
Sonia Ritter - Character Notes 2
Sonia has been considering the effect that working on the Globe stage will have on her performance. On the stage characters who listen to a scene (such as Nerissa) provide a ‘window’ on that scene for members of the audience who may not have a clear view of the character who is speaking. This makes Sonia's reactions very important.
Sonia has also been considering the physicality of her character e.g. what part of the body does Nerissa ‘lead’ with? Or in other words which part of her body dominates the way she walks and moves? Sonia decided that Nerissa led from the back and shoulders, she is elegant, muscular and strong.
This has been a difficult time for Sonia because her horse died. The horse had been with Sonia for many years and she was very distressed by his death; this event took much of her emotional energy and she was not able to take time away from rehearsal. At this time as part of the rehearsal process the whole company went away for a residential week to an old air craft base where they created the appropriate environment for their characters and acted out the scenes that are not in the play. In other words what happens to the characters when they are not on stage (Sonia called the process the ‘not play’). This is helpful because it gives the cast a common memory, which they can draw on in later rehearsals. It also helped Sonia with her portrayal of the clerk, she has decided to play the clerk as a young boy who takes orders from Portia as Bellario. This provides a direct parallel with Nerissa's position as Portia's maid. Sonia feels that Nerissa is quite wise within the limitations of her world, she knows her limitations but is also willing to take the ‘main chance’ and the main chance is Gratiano – Lord Bassanio's friend.
Sonia has decided that Nerissa is not in love with Gratiano, she likes him and promises to be faithful to him, but sees him as a way to strengthen her position. Sonia feels love between them will happen, Nerissa's real love or devotion at that time lies with Portia. Nerissa will only marry Gratiano "if it please" Portia. Gratiano is in love with Nerissa – there is no social advantage to him in the marriage. Sonia and Andrew (the actor who plays Gratiano) have decided that they met on an earlier visit to Belmont, the reason Gratiano wishes to return to Belmont with Bassanio is to see Nerissa.
The director has decided that Nerissa will bring out the caskets. This gives her a highly visible role in these scenes. Sonia feels that this is important as it will help Portia strengthen her resolve to abide by the terms of her father's will. She has also decided that Nerissa definitely knows which casket contains Portia's portrait but she doesn’t know what is written inside it.
Sonia Ritter - Character Notes 3
Nerissa listens to a great deal of dialogue, but does not contribute unless necessary or appropriate. Sonia feels she is a character that understands the virtue and value of silence; Nerissa tells Portia "Silence bestows that virtue.."
Sonia has now had some rehearsal on the Globe stage, this has led to some discoveries about Nerissa's relationship with Gratiano. Apart from the final scene they do not speak with each other on stage and have to find ways of communicating with each other, across the stage without speaking. When they do start to physically come together Portia interrupts them.
Sonia is now looking at the detail of her character, she feels that her Armenian accent does not yet work and is exploring ways to develop her accent within the context of the play. She must decide how pronounced it should be (there is not one definitive Armenian accent). Sonia is delighted that she will sing the song that accompanies Bassanio's selection of the caskets, she will try to sing it in a way which reflects her Armenian interpretation of the role. Sonia has also been thinking about how Nerissa will stand – and has decided that it will be with attitude, not servitude!
Sonia Ritter - Character Notes 4
Sonia enjoys the technical and preview part of the production period as this allows her to be practical about her role, she finds that little details develop very quickly at the end of the rehearsal process.
The first performance of the play was interesting for the actors because there was a huge thunderstorm during the casket scenes. It was very loud and the actors had to struggle to be heard over the noise of the storm. This kind of weather also affects the audience – the groundlings get wet and the actors have to work very hard to communicate the story of the play through these distractions.
Sonia feels it is very important to be very confident on stage but never to demand attention away from other actors. She is beginning to develop her character with an audience and is realising they will react to moments in the play and relate to Nerissa in a way which she might not have initially have anticipated. Sonia has also found that as Nerissa she is able to comment on the action of the play, or other characters. For example while their new husbands return to Venice to defend Antonio, Portia decides that she and Nerissa should live as nuns. Sonia is able to show the audience that Nerissa disapproves of this scheme and thus enter into a relationship with the audience.
As performances progress Sonia is able to enjoy the part more and more. She has found that the audience reacts to her very positively in her role as the boy during the court scene. Sonia has to be careful not to play too much on this reaction and detract from the audience's focus on other characters in that scene, such as Shylock and Antonio
Sonia particularly enjoys the song she sings before Bassanio make his choice of casket, she is able to try singing it in different ways and to respond to the mood of the play and the audience. She is also beginning to find Nerissa's vulnerability at that moment – she has staked her fortunes on Bassanio's choice as she has told Gratiano that she will only marry him if Bassanio is successful in his bid to marry Portia.
At the end of Act 2 Scene 9 Sonia has one line alone on stage,
"Bassanio, Lord Love, if thy will it be!"
Sonia is still uncertain of the best way to say this line, she doesn’t feel at this point that it quite works in performance, it is however very exciting for Sonia to be alone on the stage for that moment, although it also carries a great responsibility for the actor as s/he alone has to hold the attention of the audience.