Jessica Dennis has begun rehearsals for the much anticipated production of The Merchant of Venice (1936), starring Tracy Ann Oberman as Shylock.
Set in the back drop of the Battle of Cable Street, this imaginative new production uses this classic text to bring light to current and historic antisemitism recreatinng a time when the Jewish community of East London blocked the streets to prevent the British Union of Fascists marching through.
I’ve always wanted to reclaim The Merchant in some way and wanted to see how it would change with a single mother Shylock. My own great-grandma and great aunts were single mothers, widows, left in the East End to run the businesses and the homes, which they did with an iron fist. When I spoke about it to Brigid [Larmour, Director], she instantly got it, and said it gave a brilliant way into the problematic aspects of characters like Antonio and Portia. She saw them as aristocratic young Mosleyites, supporters of the British Union of Fascists led by Oswald Mosley. That led us to Cable Street, with pawn shops and money-lending under the counter of shmatter stalls and seamstress jobs, in the weeks leading up to Mosley’s Fascist march against ‘The Jew’ in 1936.
Tracy Ann Oberman
Click for tickets for the Watford Palace or HOME, Manchester productions.