The Merchant of Venice

[Terry]

Shylock was another role to which Welles would return. Here's his 1938 Mercury Text Records production, released in a set of 78 speed records. It was accompanied by a reprint of the 1934 Everybody's Shakespeare edition of the play, renamed The Mercury Shakespeare, the text edited by Roger Hill, and the stage directions (greatly abridged for the recording) and illustrations by Welles. In essence, the series of recordings (comprising Merchant, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, and Macbeth) were performances of Hill's adaptions. The productions were extremely spartan compared with the Mercury Theatre on the Air, featuring little or nothing in the way of music or sound effects.

Though the accent Welles used in the Orson's Bag film version was vastly superior, this 1938 version is at least complete.

Part 1 http://www.box.net/shared/03ckmpce1d
Part 2 http://www.box.net/shared/zm31q4cxdr
Part 3 http://www.box.net/shared/lnu7xqtx34
Part 4 http://www.box.net/shared/bbgpa1ngux