By Eric George Tauber
LA JOLLA, California — When I heard “Monday night lecture” I was expecting the usual crowd of altecockers in the library. Oy, was I wrong. The 500-seat Garfield Theatre at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center was packed. Rosh Hashana should draw such a crowd.
The discussion was moderated by San Diego Theatre icon: Pat Launer. The stage was set in a cozy “talk-show” format. Beholding the crowd, Edelstein -who comes from New York City- remarked that he had “moved to the right town.”
Of all of Shakespeare’s characters, Shylock is arguably the most controversial. Portrayals of him range from a greedy, merciless psychopath to sympathetic victim of bigotry. The $64,000 question: What was Shakespeare’s intention?
One thing is certain: Shylock is an angry man who lives in a society that feels free to scorn and spit on him, offering him no means of redress. Who wouldn’t get fed up with that?
While almost everyone in the house had either seen or read the play, Edelstein gave an “elevator” summary. The text contains many anti-Jewish slurs, so it was revived in the early days of the Third Reich and is now popular in the Arab world. And yet… in these overtly prejudiced productions, Shylock’s famous speech, “Hath a Jew not eyes…” is often cut.
Did Shakespeare know any Jews? London’s population of 600,000 –the largest city the world had ever seen at the time- contained multiple minority communities including Jews, so it is quite possible. Having people in their midst who were “not English” helped the English define who they were by contrasting themselves with who they weren’t. This theme plays out in Merchant when Shylock is referred to as an “alien” who is not entitled to the same rights as a Venetian.
Stereotypes abound. Jewish girls were seen as exotic and sexually precocious. So Lorenzo’s friends are happy about his hooking up with Shylock’s daughter, Jessica. Jewish men, on the other hand, were greedy money-lenders not to be admired or desired.
There are essentially two ways to dress Shylock:
1) Very different from everyone else such as traditional Turkish or Chassidic dress, justifying his ‘alien’ status.
2) Just like everyone else with the addition of a yarmulke or a yellow star, making his ‘alien’ status seem absurd.
After Al Pacino made the movie released in 2004 –which just so happened to be my third date with my now lovely wife- he contacted Barry about playing it on the live stage. So much of the text has been cut that he wanted to give the words their full weight.
To help him get into the role, Barry took him to a Satmar Orthodox Synagogue. This is a house of the über-religious. So insular is their community, so focused are they on their religious studies, that they had never even heard of Shakespeare. Didn’t ring a bell. And yet… they’d heard of Al Pacino.
The brilliance of Merchant is the way our sympathies swing back and forth between Shylock and the Christians. And Shylock isn’t the only conflicted character. Antonio –the actual Merchant of Venice- burns with homoerotic longing for his friend Bassanio. But such feelings were not “kosher” in his day. Weary of his inner conflict, he wants to commit “suicide by Jew” as a resolution.
At the end, when Shylock is denied his pound of flesh, forced to convert to Christianity and give his estate to his daughter and her Christian husband. Shakespeare didn’t tell us what happened then. So this is the challenge and prerogative of directors. Edelstein wouldn’t spoil what they’re doing at the Globe, but assured us that it would be interesting.
During the Q & A, there were several interesting questions and insights. The last was a woman who remarked that when she read Shakespeare in high school, she hated every minute of it. But if Barry Edelstein had been her teacher, she would have loved it.
So if you want some young people in your life to share your love of Shakespeare, bring them to the Globe. Let passionate thespians be their teachers and the Bard will be as timeless tomorrow as he has always been.
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Tauber is a freelance writer specializing in the arts. He may be contacted at eric.tauber@sdjewishworld.com This article appeared previously on San Diego Theatre Reviews.