I saw a production of this play recently at my local theatre. It was unusual in that Shylock was played by a woman and the setting was Cable Street in the East End of London in 1936, the time of fascism, Moseley and the Black Shirts. Actually nothing was very usual about the matinee I went to. There were men searching bags at the door, a few policeman were standing at the theatre entrance, Shylock was played by Tracy-Ann Obermann, herself a Jew, and Hamas had just massacred over a thousand Jewish civilians in southern Israel.
All these factors added to the violent frisson of the performance and gave the play extra poignancy. Towards the end of the play, Tracy-Ann Obermann (apparently famous from Eastenders) encouraged the audience to stand, not hoping for a standing ovation but to show support for Israel.
Later in the week I read an article that she had written in a news journal. Her family had lived in Cable Street in the 1930s. She noted how her great grandmother had thought England was heaven as she was unlikely to be raped or beheaded. The fascism then had been upsetting and disappointing, as were the anti-Jewish demonstrations in some parts of London today.
Sometimes things come together to form unexpected connections. I won’t forget that matinee.