The OTHER Solos – Shakespeare monologues performed by ‘foreigners’

Hear me explain – with the words of Portia – why mercy is the strongest weapon.

I was asked by a good friend, Paula Rodrigues, to perform this beautiful monologue from The Merchant of Venice in her project The OTHER Solos. I was very happy to participate and to lend my voice to Shakespeare, to the foreigners, to the mercy that we should use to season justice before judging.

The OTHER Solos are a series of Shakespeare monologues that deal with issues of identity, migration, power and exile, performed by actors whose mother tongue is not English. This project was developed in response to recent world events and the increasing sentiment against migration in the media and Western society.

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, ACT IV, SCENE I.
LISE AAGAARD (DENMARK)

PORTIA
The quality of mercy is not strained;
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:
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice.

@theothersolos