ECHOES OF DARKNESS
Jews gather, laughing and chattering, offering a toast as they run down the aisles to settle downstage for a Passover meal with candles, prayers and the ancient question “why is this night different from all other nights?”.
This time it is, for a bad reason. A noise outside: and over their heads in vast projected newsreels come Mosley and the British Union of Fascists at the battle of Cable Street, with bold black libellous posters about “negroid Jewish filth” and the octopus of Jewish finance.
A pilgrimage, this was, and not by accident. Because it plays this week in a resonant place : just off Cable Street , where Mosley’s marchers met a resistant crowd, not only of the Jews they targeted but of dockers, unionists and East Enders with a banner “They Shall Not Pass” . Honest people shared the disgust and brotherhood, seeing off the thugs. On that autumn day Wilton’s music hall, was a meeting place and first-aid post for the anti-fascists.
So to see this remarkable production here, setting Shakespeare’s play in 1936 , is heartshaking . When Brigid Larmour”s show, with Tracy Ann Oberman provocatively cast as Shylock, began its long tour nobody could foresee that by now the London streets would again see antisemitic hatred on the march. Nor would there be such dangerous electricity in the play’s troublesome story of a demand for human flesh to suffer. For we see not only a scornful cadre of contemptuous toffs – Gratiano a real posh Bullingdon thug, wealthy Antonio coming to court in jackboots and red armband – but of a Jew exacting revenge through bloodshed. Because the hurt is so deep. And we also see a Jewish neighbour running in fear from a thug, and walls daubed with daily hatred.
Oberman is brilliant, turning Shakespeare’s grotesque into a smartly dressed businesswoman, a mother appalled by her daughter’s defection, then a deeply hurt and lonely figure standing on her dignity and rights in court while her case is destroyed by the crossdressed Portia – who is seriously nasty by the end, merciless despite the famous speech. It forces you, as always, to think not only about the ancient curse of antisemitism but about law, its glory and its limitations.
Its a taut, and well cut, two hours. And in the final moments the defeated and ruined Shylock, clutching her possessions, stands alone against the rom-com finale stuff with Bassanio’s ring,. Bleak – until suddenly everything turns round. The hostile men throw off armbands, Antonio dons the kippah, and all unfurl a sheet with They Shall Not Pass .
And most of the audience here in old Wilton’s suddenly stand up, in fellowship. And Oberman briefly tells us, as herself, that her grandmother was there at Cable Street, and that it still befits us all to stand together.
Touring till Feb. York next, Manchester, Chichester, Stratford upon Avon
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