The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 19.0082 Sunday, 10 February 2008
[1] From: Anthony Burton <
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Date: Thursday, 7 Feb 2008 09:59:31 -0500
Subj: Re: SHK 19.0070 Untouchable Shakespeare
[2] From: Lynn Brenner <
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Date: Thursday, 07 Feb 2008 15:35:22 -0500
Subj: Re: SHK 19.0062 Untouchable Shakespeare
[3] From: Joseph Egert <
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Date: Sunday, 10 Feb 2008 11:46:23 -0800 (PST)
Subj: Re: SHK 19.0062 Untouchable Shakespeare
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Anthony Burton <
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Date: Thursday, 7 Feb 2008 09:59:31 -0500
Subject: 19.0070 Untouchable Shakespeare
Comment: Re: SHK 19.0070 Untouchable Shakespeare
I was dramaturge for a Merchant of Venice production here in Amherst,
back in the summer of '04, and wrote a piece for the program putting my
case that the play -- widely and wildly misunderstood -- depicts
anti-Semitism but is not anti-Semitic. One thing leading to another, a
panel discussion was organized that fall at the U. Mass Center for
Renaissance Studies. The participants included a local rabbi, Harley
Erdman (of the U. Mass theater department, who had written a book on
depictions of Shylock), and myself. Arthur Kinney, director of the
Center, opened the discussion before a very crowded room with remarks
that included the observation that, following WWII and the Holocaust,
Merchant was a play that has been overtaken by time (an idea he
acknowledged borrowing from a study of Othello) and could not be
considered simply as one play among others in Shakespeare's canon. In
the course of a very animated and far-ranging discussion, at least one
Holocaust survivor and several other younger Jewish attendees (students,
probably) strongly expressed the view that the play was irredeemably
offensive and should simply not be performed.
So, from the evidence of this heterogeneous and generally enlightened
corner of the world, contemporary reactions to Merchant can go far
beyond simple distaste for its portrayals of anti-Semitism, to the
belief that the harm from a performance is so much greater than the good
that it simply should not be staged. I could recount similar reaction to
other performances, expressed in group and individual discussions after
the show, and am surprised that other contributors have not encountered it.
As a very brief digression, it seems obvious that the more vile the
portrayal of Shylock, the more it appears that the unthinking
anti-Semitism of the various Christians is justified. In this light,
sympathetic portrayals of Shylock may be less about sanitizing him than
about drawing attention to the Christians who disregard his humanity.
But as every actor knows, every performance is a collaboration involving
author, cast, and audience. The Merchant might be a barrel of laughs to
Puck: "What fools these mortals be."
Tony Burton
[2]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Lynn Brenner <
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Date: Thursday, 07 Feb 2008 15:35:22 -0500
Subject: 19.0062 Untouchable Shakespeare
Comment: Re: SHK 19.0062 Untouchable Shakespeare
I think your sources are mistaken.
A few months ago, the Theatre for a New Audience -- an off-Broadway
company that relies on subscriptions and donations -- put on the
Merchant of Venice and Marlowe's Jew of Malta in repertory. Both
productions sold out, there was a line of people waiting for
cancellations at almost every performance, and I don't recall seeing or
reading about any picketing or protests of any kind.
By contrast, there were picketers passing out fliers every evening at
the recent off-Broadway production of `My Name is Rachel Corrie', a
little play about a young American peace activist who was crushed to
death by an Israeli bulldozer. In fact, the New York Theater Workshop,
originally the venue for `Rachel Corrie', canceled the production
altogether after protests that it was anti-Semitic. It was eventually
produced by another company.
The New York Theatre Workshop also relies heavily on subscriptions and
donations.
Lynn Brenner
[3]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Joseph Egert <
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Date: Sunday, 10 Feb 2008 11:46:23 -0800 (PST)
Subject: 19.0062 Untouchable Shakespeare
Comment: Re: SHK 19.0062 Untouchable Shakespeare
Carol Morley writes:
>...I'm trying to
>substantiate whether the pointed reaction I have encountered from older
>Americans, that to read, teach or perform the Merchant is an act of
>Anti-Semitism per se., is either widespread or influencing curricula...
On Israeli Hebrew and American Yiddish productions of the MERCHANT and
their attendant controversies, check out:
---Oz, Avraham, "Transformations of Authenticity: the MECHANT OF VENICE
in Israel", published in variant versions in FOREIGN SHAKESPEARE (1993);
in YOKE OF LOVE (1995); and in NEW CASEBOOKS THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (1998).
---Berkowitz, Joel, SHAKESPEARE ON THE AMERICAN YIDDISH STAGE (2002).
Hope this helps,
Joe Egert
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