The Serpent of Venice

Summon Shakespeare’s ghost and go on a wild, eye-opening tour of a Shakespearean Venice. Pocket of Dog Snogging, the down-on-his-luck drunken fool of small stature and enormous codpiece, follows his previous appearance in Fool by being betrayed and walled in a cellar by his enemies. If he can escape, with the help of an amorous sea monster, he just might be able to save Othello from the ambitious Iago, help Shylock collect what he is owed, and get his own revenge.

The Serpent of Venice mixes two Shakespeare plays (Merchant of Venice and Othello, specifically) into a unique new plot and throws in a solid Poe reference to boot. It explores what might happen if someone with a handful of sense and a willingness to speak up had been present at critical moments, pokes fun at modern interpretations of these plays and Shakespearean stagecraft in general, and also brings the Bard’s earthier humor into modern light with a plethora of penis jokes. The result is delightful on several levels: adroitly handling classic works of literature while being laugh-out-loud-funny and a perfectly good story in its own right.