Portia

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Michelle Duncan plays Portia

Michelle's work in theatre includes A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Magic Quest, and The Burning with Theatre Alba, Time and The Conways at Theatre Royal Bath, No Exit, Richard III, Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, The Glass Menagerie and The Inspector General at the Mermaids. TV includes Low Winter Sun, Dr Who, Whatever Love Means, Sugar Rush and Sea of Souls. On Film Michelle has appeared in Driving Lessons, Chosyu Five, The Broken and the soon to be realsed Atonement.

Bulletin 1

These comments are the actor's thoughts or ideas about the part as s/he goes through the rehearsal process – they are simply his/her own interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsal process progresses.

Becoming An Actor
I used to do choir and youth theatre at school and then I went to drama school for a year which I didn’t like very much because I think I was too young. Then I went to university and did English and Classics at St Andrews. I loved it and was there for four years and did loads of theatre and plays. When I finished I did lots of Edinburgh fringe type work before I worked for the BBC in a series called thing called Sea of Souls. I got my agent from that. This is my first real professional theatre job - I’ve just been doing TV and Film for the past two years - so its amazing! I have acted in two Shakespeare plays before. I’ve played Helena in A Midsummer Nights Dream. and I’ve played Queen Elizabeth in Richard III at University.

Performing at the Globe
I’ve seen three productions at the Globe including last years Titus Andronicus and The comedy of Errors. Its an amazing space. We’ve been on the stage and felt the space but we haven’t done any acting on it yet. I feel very privileged and special to be here. It feels like you are part of history.

I go through stages of feeling quite excited and then I think ‘oh no! I don’t know my lines yet!’ so I’m also a little scared at the moment. I think they’ll be a lot of up and down before we start.

Auditioning for the Part
I had two auditions to get the part. At the first one I read two different scenes. The first was Act 1 Scene 2 where she’s in Belmont and she’s talking to her friend Nerissa. Then I read some parts of Act 4 Scene 1 in the court room. Two weeks later I came back and worked on stage with Rebecca Gatwood (Director) and Dominic Dromgoole (Artistic Director).

First Impressions of Portia
I did not know the play at all before I auditioned. I vaguely knew about the pound of flesh scene but that was it. When I read it originally I was amazed how much Portia talks in prose. Before the audience see her, you hear about her and think ‘oh God another kind of prissy, pretty, no personality young woman’ and then she comes in and is really down to earth, mocking all her suitors.

I don’t think she knows what she wants at the start, but I think she’ll know what she wants once she’s seen it. She’s determined and quite feisty but I guess she’s always had what she wanted because she’s very very rich. In modern terms she’s like a Paris Hilton heiress. She’s always had what she’s wanted so I think that breeds a kind of confidence that people mistake for arrogance.

The circumstances that her father has left her in are very tough - no matter how nice a person you are you’d still be quite angry. So I think, in part of Act 1 Scene 2, obviously she’s being really horrible to everyone, but in some ways she needs to do something to make her life lighter because she’s in a horrible position. Her father’s dead and her money could attract the wrong kind of people to her so in she needs protection. I think she’s just trying to make her friend (Nerissa) laugh. They are just having a bit of fun to make light of a very very serious situation.

I did go through a stage with the court scene (Act 4 Scene 1) where I thought she was being deliberately nasty to Shylock but through exploration I realised that the difference between the Christian concept of justice and mercy is very different from the Jewish concept of justice and mercy. Therefore, she’s not being specifically horrible to him, rather each of them is supporting their own God. It is a difference in opinion and I think that’s very hard for us to realise now.

Portia and Bassanio
She has seen him before. But we think, because he says ‘There are times when I have seen secret messages from her eyes’, that she fancies him. He says he thinks that she’s a great possibility and a great person to go out with but he doesn’t actually say that he specifically fancies her. I think he thinks that she would be a good choice and he likes the idea of her.

We are still trying to decide how much she really loves him or how much she likes him. We are also trying to discover whether she can have a relationship with him and still be in charge because she’s more powerful than him. From his perspective we are also asking if he loves her in reality or is he just interested in her money because that’s the first thing that attracts him to her.

Belmont and Venice
Venice is very very cosmopolitan and all the characters who come from Venice are very used to people. They see lots of different people and lots of different races, traders and merchants on a daily basis. They have a more colourful variation and a more interesting existence. There is lots of different architecture and lots of boats and its all very busy and exciting. In contrast, Belmont is very quite with beautiful gardens. Its more ‘perfect’ and sheltered than Venice. Its got a much calmer atmosphere. It is like an Arcadia.

Portia and Nerissa
They’re like a double act. In the renaissance, gentlewoman were of a similar status. Although Portia has a lot of money, Nerissa is her companion rather than her maid. We think that they’ve known each other a very very long time and that they’ve done lots together and been mischievous in their youth. We’ve explored the idea that when they were young they used to swap clothes with Stefano, their male servant. Apparently women of the period used to dress as men to be able to go out in Venice. So when Portia and Nerissa disguise themselves as men later in the play it is something that they may be used to. These are just ideas that we are talking about at the moment to make it more interesting and to help us build an identity.

The First week of Rehearsals
We’ve been learning the jig which has been funny but I think it will look amazing. We have been doing drum and percussion work as a company. At the point where Jessica elopes with Lorenzo and is taken in a boat outside her father’s house, there is going to be a huge masque - like a big carnival. At that point we all come on stage in masks and have a drunken party! We also then act out the situation that has happened between Jessica and Lorenzo. I was playing Shylock in caricature! We’ve also been hearing about Venice historically and the place it had in the world economically - it’s been really good.

Costume
There is a slightly modern theme going on. They want to give the impression of it being set in the period but have little details so that the audience will be able to relate to what kind of character I am. I have a period dress with I a belt that might be quite modern and modern platforms. Hopefully the audience will think ‘oh I understand what kind of person she is.’ If its completely in period it is hard for us to relate to this costume wise as you start asking ‘am I like them?’. Hopefully our modern touches should help the audience find this.

I’m having three costumes including my male one. We’re not sure if we are going to have moustaches as men yet. The script suggests that they are at the stage before they have hair on their chins. The designs look amazing. The idea behind one of them is that Portia is like a white peacock! So I will have a white dress with lots sparkly blue bits on it.

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Bulletin 2

These comments are the actor's thoughts or ideas about the part as s/he goes through the rehearsal process – they are simply his/her own interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsal process progresses.

Rehearsals
We’re on our feet now in the rehearsal room. This changes all kinds of things you have thought about whilst sitting down and discussing the play. You find that once you’re on your feet, some things you wanted to do don’t work - so it completely changes the way you look at things. The court room scene makes far more sense when you’re moving it because things that sound similar in terms of argument suddenly become very different. We’ve now blocked the whole scene – it obviously needs lots of work, but we’ve done the skeleton of it. We’ve done all the scenes but I don’t think I’ve managed to find a through line yet, so the next stage will be working out Portia’s journey.

Portia
I’m trying to work out where the mercy in her lies because although she doesn’t represent mercy in the court room – she stands for justice - I think she has to have an element of mercy in her character. I’m just trying to work out where that is! She has to have a sympathetic aspect in some way.

Portia’s Suitors
The scenes with the Prince of Aragon and Morocco are absolutely hilarious. The Prince of Aragon is a Spanish prince and says ‘mar-i-age’ in a bad Spanish accent instead of ‘marriage’! Both suitors are very very funny.

Portia doesn’t want to marry either of them even slightly! In a modern context she could be vaguely amused by them both, but the stakes are very very high in terms of her possibly having to marry one of them. I think she’s desperately repulsed by both of them and doesn’t want to go near them. I find this quite hard to play as an actress because they are very funny scenes. They can’t be too light however, because there is something quite terrible at stake - she has no choice but to marry them if they chose the right casket.

Act 3 Scene 2
Portia goes through quite an emotional journey in this scene. I think this a scene where the audience could sympathise with her because she does have quite an eccentric and imaginative side. She uses incredible imagery:

Now he goes
With no less presence, but with much more love
Than young Alcides, when he did redeem
The Virgin tribune, paid by howling Troy
To the sea-monster: I stand for sacrifice,
The rest aloof are the Dardanian wives,
With bleared visages come forth to view
The issue of th’ exploit

She is suddenly letting out all these feelings that are quite romantic and passionate and you’ve never really seen that from her before. This, to me, seems like the real her and in a lot of the other scenes she’s masked. It’s lovely that here she wears her heart on her sleeve, for example, when she says:

You see me lord Bassabio where I stand,
Such as I am; though for myself alone
I would not be ambitious in my wish
To wish myself much better, yet for you,
I would be trebled twenty times myself

We haven’t made too many decisions about how to play this. The director has said that she doesn’t want it to seem like Portia’s having a crisis of confidence for example:

I might in virtues, beauties, livings, friends
Exceed account: but the full sum of me
Is sum of something: which to term in gross,
Is an unlesson’d girl, unschool’d, unpractised,

Do we really think she’s an ‘unschooled, unpractised’ girl? I’m still not sure about that yet.

Bassanio and the Caskets
The caskets in our production are a bit like football trophies. My portrait will be a type of Barbie doll that pops up! We’ve decided that as soon as Bassanio sees this he falls in love with her. Up until then he’s really only been interested in her money and then he sees this doll from the casket and thinks ‘wow’. Something magical happens. Every time the caskets open something magical happens and that’s his moment - from that point he loves her.

Portia and Jessica
I think she feels very sad for Jessica. Portia’s lost her father so on a human level she must know how terrible it is to be without her father. I feel she would feel really sympathetic. She doesn’t like her; she doesn’t necessarily want to be friends with her because of the religious differences and their status. But I don’t think she would be a human if she didn’t feel some kind of empathy towards her. We’ve done this bit at the end of the court scene where Shylock throws his Jewish hat on the floor and I’d like to pick it up and give it to Jessica in the last scene – not as a main point - but just as an unsaid thing to Jessica, telling her to put this to rest. I don’t think the director is thinking about that as a point to communicate, so I don’t think she’d like me to do it - but we’ll see what happens.

The Theme of Contracts
The business with the ring in Act 5 Scene 1 is really just another contract. If you think about it, all the casket scenes are about making a contract; about obeying a contract her father has made. Bassanio makes a contract with Antonio and as a result is bound to a contract with Shylock. The court scene is all about contracts and then the rings are about making a new contract because Bassanio has broken the wedding contract by giving away the ring. He has broken the agreement and so its about re-enforcing the wedding vows and reviewing the contract in order to continue the next phase. If it’s a new contract, it actually makes sense because they couldn’t really leave it where he just gives away the ring. Portia needs to make another contract because that’s what she’s all about – things that legally bind.

Voice
I’ve been doing lots of voice work with the production’s voice director. When I speak lines from the heart, my voice goes quite high so I need it to stay down and concentrate on using lower registers which is quite difficult. I won’t be playing Portia with my natural accent (Scottish). She will have an English RP accent.

Costume
It’s looking amazing! Absolutely beautiful. I have platform shoes so I’ll be much taller than Bassanio! My dress is this huge shimmering gold gown of greeny gold with this huge skirt and then a shiny blue- green sparkly peacock layer at the back, which is lovely.

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Bulletin 3

These comments are the actor's thoughts or ideas about the part as s/he goes through the rehearsal process – they are simply his/her own interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsal process progresses.

The Last Week of Rehearsals
We’ve been trying to iron out things that aren’t working, add detail, and establish relationships more firmly. I’m finding the court scene difficult and the ‘Quality of mercy’ speech really difficult, because I’m not entirely convinced of what part of her it comes from. So we’ve been working on that.

Portia as a Lawyer
I think Portia takes a great risk going into the court. She knows what she wants to do legally, but she has to go in blind, pretending she doesn’t know what she wants to do. She’s not a lawyer, or a man, so in some ways this motivation appears to be foolish. If I play it that she is a legal genius the scene will not be as exciting as it can be and it’s highly improbable that she is one anyway. So it seems that she goes for the drama of the moment. I’ve been trying to work out a real through line to explain this – but there isn’t one! You have to take a few leaps of faith.

Researching Historical Context
An actor in our company has been reading this book about Catholicism in Shakespeare. It says, apparently, it was illegal to talk about who would be Elizabeth I’s potential husband. And it may be that Shakespeare explores this in The Merchant of Venice. So if Portia represents Elizabeth I, you have to show a woman who could talk about mercy; who could cope in man’s world; who could pass for a man; whose attractiveness was modelled to be out of people’s reach. The public didn’t want her to marry certain people, i.e. the suitors who come and who get ushered away, but then, of course, you realise that her many different roles don’t create a clear through line. A queen would have lots of attributes, the idea of her being merciful is just one facet.

In this respect Portia is a metaphor – she’s not real. I am trying to find what is real because at the moment she’s like a different character in each scene – as a queen would be. As an actor I have to find some sort of through-line and consistency for the audience to believe me.

Sometimes I find lots of research can be counter productive. I know I could write an essay about Portia and the court room scene, but all this information is not helping me to play it.

Portia and Shylock
I don’t think Portia feels anything towards Shylock. She is indifferent to him. It’s got nothing to do with the fact that he is Jewish. He is someone that she’s trying to convince to show mercy – he could be anyone – he fails to do that and she’s a stickler for contracts and she’s a stickler for following promises out to their very end, even if they are uncomfortable. She believes that if you follow the truth right to the end, good will out. She doesn’t hate him – she’s horrible to him but I don’t think it’s because he is Jewish it’s because he refuses to show mercy rather than anything more sinister.

Portia wouldn’t necessarily talk to Shylock in the street. I think she would be aware that he’s different from her. She would be unsure about his religious beliefs. But, I think his religion is completely irrelevant to her in the court room scene.

Motivations
Portia goes to the court to get her husband back. She is scared about this man [Antonio] who has so much power over her new young husband. I guess on one level she wants to see what her husband’s life is like without her – what is he up to? He’s already lied to her about having money when in fact he borrowed it. He keeps making promises that he can’t keep. There is an element of her wanting to see him in his natural habitat. Also does she really want to help this friend? This is what I’m struggling with. The director thinks she’s got this arrogance which comes with money. Portia thinks she can buy anything and so she can convince people to do anything. She is like a Paris Hilton heiress.

On Stage
We went on the stage to do some voice work and it’s so different. I’ve got quite a light voice so it’s really scary. I’m going to keep working on my lower register. I’m also concerned about how to maintain voice over the duration of the run.

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