When the Marin Shakespeare Company unveils its “Merchant of Venice” today, it will launch a pre-emptive strike against charges of the play’s anti-Semitism.
In the famed late 16th-century work, the title character is Shylock, a Jewish usurer who is referred to as a “damned, inexecrable dog” possessing desires that are “wolvish, bloody, starved and ravenous.”
Well aware of the play’s anti-Semitic reputation, the play’s director, Robert Currier, led the cast through extensive research on the subject, drawing from Shakespearian scholars, documents and previous performances.
Additionally, a symposium of religious leaders will discuss the play at San Rafael Congregation Rodef Sholom at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 13.
The talk will feature Rodef Sholom Rabbi Michael Barenbaum, the Rev. Doug Huneke of the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Tiburon and Sister Samuel Conlin, professor emerita of English at Dominican University in San Rafael, where the play is being shown.
“You have to match history with theatricality,” said Currier, who will also speak at the symposium. “You have to have cultural sensitivity without changing the text.”
However, the question remains: Will the show be good to the Jew?
“Seeing Shylock on stage is like having wool rub against bare skin,” Currier conceded. “It’s not an easy thing to digest…and the audience probably won’t walk out of there humming tunes. And I really can’t apologize for that.”
The director had many Jewish consultants on the set, including his wife, various members of the theater company’s board and the actor who portrays Shylock.
“Anti-Semitism is a troubling issue in the play,” said Matt Henerson, the actor who takes on the title role. “But whether or not the play itself is anti-Semitic is a whole other issue. The villain is a Jew, but is that due to his Jewishness or just to his villainy?”
If Henerson is ambiguous about the answer, prior inceptions of the play were less so. For example, German expressionists of the 1920s portrayed Shylock with exaggerated payes, prominent beards and even horns.
Given that trend, it’s not surprising that “The Merchant of Venice” became a favorite of the Third Reich.
But if Shakespeare’s character was an anti-Semitic creation, he was also a product of the times.
Venice, at the turn of the 17th century, was home to the first Jewish ghetto where Jews could be both protected from Christian hatred and controlled with curfews and taxes.
Jews were forced to wear identifying emblems, usually yellow hats or badges, and were officially sanctioned to practice usury (money-lending at interest) and the sale of secondhand clothes.
Knowing the play’s history helps combat anti-Semitism, according to Currier.
“I think the play is an important tool is fighting Holocaust deniers,” he said. “Whenever they ask for proof of Jewish persecution, all they have to do is observe a history of the play.”
Henerson, who has portrayed Sir Toby in “Twelfth Night,” and Macbeth in Fort Bragg’s Warehouse Repertory Theatre, said that Shylock may be his toughest role yet.
The actor, who was raised in a Conservative household in Los Angeles, said that the work gives him cause to ponder “from moment to moment.”
“One moment you think that Shakespeare was too great of a man to have ever written something like this, and the next moment you see all the clues laid out before you.”
Henerson was also decidedly ambiguous about the anti-Jewish content of the play, although he did note that being Jewish might be an asset. He considers Dustin Hoffman’s and Warren Mitchell’s performan-ces in the role to be far better than another noted actor — Sir Laurence Olivier.
Jew or non-Jew, all actors that portray the merchant have one hurdle to overcome, according to Henerson.
“You just can’t figure Shakespeare out — he’s much too brilliant. The main thing is that Shakespeare is just smarter than any actor is. I don’t care whether the actor is Ian MacKellan or Matt Henerson.”