 Olivier had intended to step down from the directorship of the National Theatre at the end of his first five @-@ year contract , having , he hoped , led the company into its new building . By 1968 because of bureaucratic delays construction work had not even begun , and he agreed to serve for a second five @-@ year term . His next major role , and his last appearance in a Shakespeare play , was as Shylock in The <unk> of Venice , his first appearance in the work . He had intended Guinness or Scofield to play Shylock , but stepped in when neither was available . The production by Jonathan Miller , and Olivier 's performance , attracted a wide range of responses . Two different critics reviewed it for The Guardian : one wrote " this is not a role which stretches him , or for which he will be particularly remembered " ; the other commented that the performance " ranks as one of his greatest achievements , involving his whole range " . 
