Stage | The Guardian: ‘This play has always fascinated and repulsed me and I don’t like it. I’ve never liked it.” It’s rare for an actor promoting their latest project to express revulsion. But nothing is simple for Tracy-Ann Oberman, playing Shylock in her own adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. How do Jewish creatives approach English literature’s most notorious antisemitic archetype? Indeed, why return to the source of so many bloodthirsty, moneygrabbing slurs?
2 comments:
On the one hand, I am very glad that this is a conversation that we are having. For far too long, we have simply accepted that Shakespeare wrote a very famous play that is incredibly anti-semetic and harmful. We have continued to put on this play and in the best case scenario, there would be a comment put out by the theater about how this is anti-semetic. I think it’s good that we’re re-examining this play and its anti-semitsm. Jewish people deserve to have a say and an opinion on this show. However, I can’t help but wonder why we’re still doing this play at all. There are so many amazing shows out there, both contemporary and historical, that could be performed and instead we are still producing harmful, anti-semetic shows like this. In a world where anti-semitism is on the rise and we see it all around us, I think it’s time we laid this play, and many others, to rest forever.
I have never in my life seen a production of The Merchant of Venice. This has not stopped this show from affecting my life. Growing up I remember my mother telling me that that the only Shakespeare’s I couldn’t watch were TItus Andronicus and The Merchant of Venice. When I asked why she told me that while Titus Andronicus was too gorey and bloody, the Merchant of Venice was hateful towards our people and would only hurt me at such a young age. Thusly, I find it especially interesting learning about different Jewish perspectives on both the character of Shylock as well as the play “Merchant of Venice” in general. I am glad that there are so many differing opinions and perspectives and I find several of them very compelling although I do not agree with any single one in it’s entirety, rather I prefer a patchwork of these thoughts from other members of my community on a piece of media that has made us out as villains for years.
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