<P> Elmore Leonard's book Get Shorty was later made into the movie Get Shorty starring John Travolta, wherein Travolta's character Ernest "Chilli" Palmer is a shylock, or loan shark . Throughout the movie Travolta pitches an idea for a movie about an actual shylock . </P> <P> St. John Ervine's play The Lady of Belmont (1924) is a sequel to The Merchant of Venice where the characters meet again some years later . All of the marriages that ended The Merchant of Venice are unhappy, Antonio is an obsessive bore reminiscing about his escape from death, but Shylock, freed from religious prejudice, is richer than before and a close friend and confidante of the Doge . </P> <P> Arnold Wesker's play The Merchant (1977) dramatises the same plot from Shylock's point of view . In this retelling, Shylock and Antonio are friends bound by a mutual love of books and culture and a disdain for the anti-Semitism of the Christian community's laws . They make the bond in defiant mockery of the Christian establishment, never anticipating that the bond might become forfeit . When it does, the play argues, Shylock must carry through on the letter of the law or jeopardise the scant legal security of the entire Jewish community . He is, therefore, quite as grateful as Antonio when Portia, as in Shakespeare's play, shows the legal way out . The play received its American premiere on 16 November 1977 at New York's Plymouth Theatre with Joseph Leon as Shylock, Marian Seldes as Shylock's sister Rivka and Roberta Maxwell as Portia . This production had a challenging history in previews on the road . The Broadway star Zero Mostel, who was initially cast as Shylock, died after the play's opening night in Philadelphia . The play's author, Arnold Wesker, wrote a book chronicling the out - of - town tribulations that beset the play and Mostel's death called The Birth of Shylock and the Death of Zero Mostel . </P> <P> The award - winning monologue Shylock (1996) by Canadian playwright Mark Leiren - Young, focuses on a Jewish actor named Jon Davies, who is featured as Shylock in a production of The Merchant of Venice . Jon addresses his audience at a "talk back" session, after the play is closed abruptly due to controversy over the play's alleged antisemitism . Davies is portrayed both in and out of character, presenting and stripping down the layers between character and actor . Composed in one 80 - minute act, it premiered at Bard on the Beach on 5 August 1996, where it was directed by John Juliani and starred popular Canadian radio host, David Berner . Its American debut was in 1998 at Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theatre where it was directed by Deborah Block, starred William Leach and was "Barrymore Recommended". It has since been produced at theatres, Shakespeare Festivals and Fringes throughout Canada and the US (including the San Diego Repertory Theatre where it was staged opposite a controversial production of The Merchant of Venice), was translated for a production in Denmark and has been staged twice by the original actor, Berner, in Venice . </P>

Shylock is a ruthless usurer in the play