The Hawaii Shakespeare Festival closes out its summer season with an especially clear production of "Merchant of Venice." Even the youngest cast members keep a firm grip on their iambic pentameter, while the veteran performers make the Elizabethan dialogue immediately accessible.

An audience knows within the first five minutes of a Shakespeare production whether it's going to be in for a bumpy night of mentally sifting through dialogue to find meaning. This "Merchant," directed by Linda Johnson, quickly establishes its intelligibility, allowing the audience to ease into the plot and characters.

Johnson directs close to the script, zeroing in on words to bring out motivation and plot and staying clear of overly creative interpretations that draw attention to themselves and away from the script.

Her production of "Merchant" profits by that choice.

Stephen Mead's Shylock is especially stiff-backed and unflinching as the money-lending Jew who insists on exacting his "pound of flesh" as payment on a defaulted loan. His claim for equal rights from the Venetian gentiles — "if you prick us, do we not bleed?" — is not a plea, but a proud statement edged with contempt. His defeat at trial bends, but does not break him, and he exits the court still pridefully erect.

Robert St. John plays Antonio, the cash-poor merchant, under a gloomy cloud that gets darker with each plot point. Even when his ships finally come in, his Antonio only tentatively risks a celebratory emotion.

Danielle Vivarttas-Ahrnsbrak plays Portia as a confident young woman who devises a clever test to weed out unsuitable admirers and doesn't hesitate to adopt a male disguise to defend Antonio.

But, once in court, her confidence eludes her and the "quality of mercy" speech comes out as hesitant, almost desperately impromptu. It's a strange directorial choice that successfully brings new focus to the familiar words, but at the jarring cost of weakening the character.

Jack Lawton is staunchly upright as Portia's successful suitor. Todd Aquino-Michaels has a good monologue as a servant torn between his good and bad angels, and Jaeves Iha and Katherine Aumer-Ryan appear as the secondary pair of young lovers.

Chesley Cannon's set design served all three plays in the Festival but gets its best use in "Merchant" where its two small side stages neatly divide the courtroom scene. The elaborately detailed costumes also nicely evoke Renaissance Italy.

Analysts of the play agree that the overall plot, in which thwarted lovers eventually unite, makes it a comedy. But they're not sure what to make about Shakespeare's introduction of Shylock, whose personal trajectory is clearly tragic.

He is a self-made man who has prospered despite social discrimination and has no time for romantic noble sensibilities. A modern audience can share his insistence on justice, but usually deplores his inability to show mercy. Johnson's direction of the play suggests that having received none himself, Shylock is unable to offer mercy to Antonio. As a result he is severely penalized, thereby repeating and perpetuating the cycle.

"Merchant of Venice" plays one more weekend, bringing the seventh annual Hawaii Shakespeare Festival to a satisfying conclusion.

Joseph T. Rozmiarek has been reviewing theater performances in Hawai'i since 1973.