US author Shishir Karup has retained about ten per cent of Shakespeare’s language, rendering the rest in a witty, flexible iambic pentameter that replicates the rhythms of the original while speaking from and to the contemporary world of global finance, Bollywood stars, and deep religious and cultural tensions that are effectively translated from Shakespeare’s reflection on English concerns through the lens of Renaissance Venice. Shushir originally set his play in Los Angeles, so the London production has adapted local, American references to contemporary London.

Here are two examples of Shisir’s adaptations. The opening of the play, which establishes the protagonist’s melancholy and the attempts by his friends to attribute his depression to his business risks are rendered thus:

DEVEN I swear to god these herbs have no effect.

St. John’s Wort, Kava Kava, nothing works.

I'm mopey, weepy and bluer than blue.

My therapist won't even take my calls.

YOGA Now that's because your finger's in too many pies.

It's not enough to own a sari shop

Plus DVD and sweet and spices store,

With software, wholesale Macs and Dells,

And now your import, export business? Bap reh!

I'd drink Gaviscon all the livelong day.

SHIVA He's right at least in terms of import/export.

It's risky even in the simplest of terms.

And since the Indo-Paks now both have the Bomb

It’s made it harder on all us NRI's. (Non-Resident Indians)

These saber rattling tactics serve no one but

The goons who masquerade as public servants!

It's how they all stay in office over there.

And over here!

And here is the famous speech by Shylock on his shared humanity rendered in the mouth of Sharuk as a simultaneous sharing of community and religious distance:

Our skins share the same hue! Our families the same village!

Our loyalties the same flag! The ghee that fries your dal is as

clarified as that which cooks our lamb. Our rites of cleansing

rival your own ritual ablutions. Our call to prayer is as much a

wail for God's attention as your bell-ringing pujas; and though

your temples stand beside our mosques, we know as little of

your religious practices as you do ours. When the monsoons

rage we're subject to the same floods, when the drought drives

the burning brush the same fiery terror; when the unpredictable

earth quakes, the same uncontrollable shiver and when the

communal riots rage the same clamor for shelter. We drive our

children with the same blind ambition toward medical success

as you do yours and respond with the same alacrity when a boy

calls for one of our daughters. We share so much in common

that when our worlds collide we share the same response, an

eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. When neither of us turns the

other cheek we risk the stumble of the blind and toothless, for at

all costs we must save face. And at this game I'll strive to best

the best!

In the discussion, the audience felt that the transpositions worked well, but some questions were raised about Shishir’s ending. While he follows Shakespeare’s play quite faithfully until the middle of the great trial scene, his dispenses with the romantic final act in Belmont, ending with a plea for religious tolerance and a twist to Sharuk’s determination to have his enemy’s pound of flesh that is provocative and thought-provoking.

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• Check out these images from the production:

Photo credit: Shyamantha Asokan, @shyamantha