Shylock only appears in five scenes of The Merchant of Venice and has only 360 lines of dialogue, and yet his character has been indelibly imprinted on audience imaginations since the play was first performed.

Bitter disputes have raged between academics and directors as to whether Shylock is anything more than an ugly racist stereotype.

Gregory Doran directed The Merchant of Venice in 1997 and set the play in sixteenth century Venice. Philip Voss played Shylock in a Venetian society 'where Jews and Christians deal with each other without making to hide their mutual disgust, while still admitting that they are collaborators in the business of getting and spending' (James Treadwell, Spectator, 20/12/97).

Antony Sher played Shylock in a production of The Merchant of Venice directed by Bill Alexander in 1987. Alexander turned up 'the anti-semetic volume as loudly as possible' (Christopher Edwards, Spectator, 09/05/87). Sher exaggerated the racial traits of Shylock with 'a heavy accent, a shuffling gait, a beard, long hair and exotic clothes' (Spectator, 09/05/87).

This The Merchant of Venice, with Christians and Jews trading in spit and venom, and a star of David daubed onto the back wall of the set, was a bold attempt to free the play from charges of anti-Semitism. In this production, Shylock is an ugly character who is only responding to the much worse behaviour of his tormentors.