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Shortly after the play began I realized that it was loaded with anti-Semitic remarks and attitudes. I began to consider how different the response of today’s audiences would be to such a play. I began to wonder about the outcome of the play. I had watched other GRSF productions where non-vintage costuming and modern “things” were used in order to enhance relevance to today’s audiences (In fact, the GRSF “Taming of the Shrew” production this summer does just that.) What could be done to this play to acknowledge our sensitivities to anti-Semitism?
I believe that John must have walked out of the theater a minute too soon, for that attachment to 21st Century sentiments came in a sung prayer chanted in Hebrew quite independently by Shylock (visible at the very back of the stage) and later joined by his daughter, Jessica (visible at the very front of the stage right).
I didn’t understand the language of the prayer, but it was obviously a lament; for Shylock lost everything he ever wanted including the free practice of his religion, and his daughter gained everything she ever wanted, but at that same great price. She too was forced to become a “Christian.”
That lament may have been a part of the original play or it may have been inserted by the director of this summer’s GRSF production, but it immediately took my mind to the continuing anti-Semitic issues that we face in today’s world. In that final instant, the play became relevant for me.
I don’t remember the laughs that day and I left the theater with tears in my eyes.
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