I haven't had much to do with Merchant since high school. I can't recall seeing an enactment of it, either live or on TV.

I remember our English teacher did enjoy the Shakespeare parts of the curriculum and tried to get us into some dialogue of the lessons of the plays. We did Merchant, Othello, and Julius Caesar.

For most of my fellow students, Shakespeare was more of an ordeal that THEY were forcing us through. Sometimes we really do not understand the lessons until much later. Today, I have moderate interest and appreciation for Shakespeare, probably because of that exposure in high school.

As you have alluded, it is often how the work is presented that makes the value of that work. There are great lessons in Shakespeare's works. These lessons need to be brought into the community discussion when deciding whether or not to cancel an artistic work or not. Unfortunately, both sides of a cancel/not cancel confrontation tend to rely on emotion to make their point.

As I am writing this, I am critical of the lyrics of much rap and hip-hop music. But maybe if we put those lyrics in a room in high school, we could force students to think more about those lyrics? Again no easy answer here.