The Quality of Mercy

I've not written anything for the last few weeks because I've been spending a lot of time on the train to Perth. Why? I'm acting coach for Perth Youth Theatre's production of The Merchant of Venice and I'm having far too good a time to rant about anything much.

Today, though, was my Uncle Gus's funeral which means I had some time to sit and reflect on the production.

I'm so fired up by working with these guys. I've spent so much time working with inner-city kids who don't want to be at my classes and with whom it's a fight to gain an inch of progress. These guys are reminding me why I love working on Shakespeare. The complexities of dealing with an archaic language, the richness of the themes, the challenges and the choices are so much more thrilling to work on thn the average television script.

But today the play's big scene carries an extra message which I've been so busy lately I didn't even see.

Portia: The quality of mercy is not strain'd;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown...

...Though Justice be thy plea, consider this -
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation; we do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.

Words which the men sitting dowmn in the luxury of the Gleneagles Hotel tonight should be remembering.