Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/341807
12 "Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, aff ections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weap- ons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?" Even those totally unfamiliar with the works of William Shakespeare may well recognise those lines, though they may not know the play which made them famous. ey have after all reverberated across the world stage for the past 400 years; and besides, the words immortalised by Shylock in distant 1596 seem to resonate with a contemporary rel- evance that stretches far beyond the confi nes of the Renaissance Venice for which they were fi rst conceived. ey also seem to transcend the immediate anti-Semitism that the play itself sets out to address. Al- most half a millennium later we are still talking about racial prejudice in terms that are – barring the dif- ferences in linguistic expression – intrinsically Shakespearian. en as now, we are consistently confronted and to a point challenged by a sense of 'otherness' – be it in relation to a migrant population of diff erent race or skin colour, or even adherents of other political or social groupings – and the sentiments that accom- pany such confrontations remain virtually indistinguishable from the racist taunts endured by one of Shakespeare's most ambiguous stage villains. It is perhaps for this reason that Shylock's speech – even when read out quietly by mild-mannered aca- demic Joe Friggieri in the comfort of his University offi ce – seems to somehow speak to us with the same urgency and force today as when fi rst performed by e King's Men more than 400 years ago. And there are other aspects in which e Merchant of Venice seems altogether more con- temporary than other Shakespeare plays… even more famous ones such as Hamlet or Macbeth. Ultimately, the tale is one most will be able to relate to for a host of other reasons apart from its racial over- tones. It also involves usury and debt – two issues that are still of great rel- evance to the Maltese social and po- litical milieu today – and for all sorts of reasons, a modern audience will surely empathise with the dilemma faced by Antonio (the merchant who gives the play its name) when bor- rowing money from a man he detests and has publicly reviled at every op- portunity, only to fi nd that he cannot pay him back. Simmering beneath the surface is another theme of great contempo- rary relevance: justice. Again, many will surely recognise the character trait for which the Jewish money- lender Shylock has since become fa- mous, and has even contributed an expression to the English language. Shylock's insistence on a 'pound of fl esh' as repayment for Antonio's debt has since been entrenched in popular parlance as a metaphor for the unreasonable insistence on the letter of the law at the expense of its spirit. It is the same punctilious, infl exible and obstinate attitude that also gives us the Maltese expression, "tal-punt". Joe Friggieri, professor of phi- losophy at the University of Malta is directing e Merchant of Ven- ice for this year's MADC summer appointment with Shakespeare. It seems appropriate, then, to ask him if the choice of play was in any way dictated by its apparent relevance to Malta's own simmering racial ten- sions… and if so, how he intends to approach this relevance in his role as theatre director. "I would say e Merchant of Venice has particular relevance in connec- tion with two main themes: the fi rst is racial prejudice, and the second, the creation of permanent minori- ties as a result of social exclusion," Friggieri begins after reading me through the most pivotal speeches and scenes. "In the play, Shylock is hated be- cause he is a Jew. I think there is a lot of prejudice among us, in Malta, based simply on the fact that there are people who come from other countries – we call them 'immi- grants' – who are diff erent from us. ey have a diff erent race, a diff erent religion, a diff erent culture… and of course the colour of their skin is also diff erent. I fi nd that there is a lot of prejudice based simply on this very simple fact: that people who come here from Africa are black. is play deals with this kind of prob- lem, but obviously in the context of anti-Semitism, which was rampant in Shakespeare's day… and unfortu- nately, it is a monster that is raising its head again. Not so much perhaps in Malta, but certainly in other parts of Europe." From this perspective the play's rel- evance goes beyond the purely local concerns with racism. It must also be seen against a wider backdrop of the resurgence of political racism elsewhere in Europe and the world… and this entails what Friggieri de- scribes as a 'particular responsibility' for anyone who approaches the text with a view to performing it on the stage. "After the holocaust and the atroci- ties of the Nazi regime, and with the anti-Semitic monster raising its ugly head again, those taking part in pro- ducing or discussing e Merchant of Venice must show the dangers of all kinds of racial prejudice," Friggieri observes. "One must present it in a way that makes sure the audience doesn't read it as an anti-Semitic play." At the same time, however, e Merchant of Venice has often been criticised precisely for its perceived anti-Semitism. It is by no means uni- versally accepted that the play actu- ally condemns the racism meted out to Shylock the Jew – a highly versa- tile role, by the way, which has been performed (to considerably diff erent eff ect) by such actors as Lawrence Olivier, Patrick Stewart, Al Pacino… and now Manuel Cauchi. Shakespeare's own views on this subject are at best ambivalent, and the play's ethos seems to be pulled in diff erent directions. Shylock is accorded by far the best lines in the play, and it is diffi cult to come away from the trial scene unmoved. Clearly, we are invited to sympathise with him as a victim of prejudice. Yet the resolution of the play itself works heavily against the Jew and in favour of the man who insulted and demeaned him… and at the very cli- max, Shakespeare seems to go out of his way to rub in a Christian ethos (even insisting that Shylock convert to Christianity, for instance) that reeks of self-righteousness. How does Joe Friggieri interpret this apparent ambivalence as a di- rector, and – at the risk of giving too much away – how does his own pro- duction refl ect this interpretation? "We should be careful not to at- tribute to Shakespeare the preju- dices of some of his characters. On more than one occasion he makes it quite clear that his sympathies lie with Shylock. Not in all the scenes, naturally. One can argue about that: one can discuss the impact of the fi - nal scene at great length. But I feel that that in the famous 'Hath not a Jew eyes?' speech, we are meant by Shakespeare to be on Shylock's side… and not on the side of his per- secutors, the Christians." Friggieri adds that there are other memorable instances in the play where Shylock cannot fail to win the audience over. In his very fi rst ap- pearance in Act One Scene ree – the fi rst time we see Shylock -he re- minds Antonio of the insults he has received simply because of his race: He has been called misbeliever, cut- throat dog, spat upon and kicked like 'a stranger cur'. "And he has put up with it 'with a patient shrug, for suff erance is the badge of all our tribe'," Friggieri points out, pausing to read out the speech in full. "I think that's very beautiful… [the scene] also makes the point very clearly, and I think the audience will understand what Shylock was trying to tell Antonio…" Whether Antonio understood it, however, is another question. "Antonio's reaction is certainly not that of an exemplary Christian. He replies by saying that he will spit on him again, call him dog and kick him, even if Shylock lends him the money he needs…" Nor is anti-Semitism the only in- cidence of racism to make itself felt in e Merchant of Venice. ere is also a sub-plot in which Portia – the beautiful, intelligent and wealthy heroine (played by Coryse Borg) who ultimately dispenses 'justice' to Shy- lock and Antonio while disguised as a male judge – must fend off the ad- vances of a number of suitors so that she can marry the man of her own choice, Bassanio. Among the suitors is the Prince of Morocco, who is marked from the rest even at a glance by his skin col- our alone. Admittedly the African prince is accorded far more respect in the play than the hated Jew… but again, the Christian heroine proves incapable of looking beyond the su- perfi cial, and expresses naked relief when he fails the marriage test de- vised by Portia's father, and chooses the wrong casket. Friggieri however cautions against reading too much of Shakespeare's own opinions into the lines uttered by one of his characters (an impor- tant character, no doubt, but still a lone voice among several). "In Portia's fi rst scene with the Prince of Morocco, the prince speaks proudly of his dark skin as 'the shad- ow's livery of the burnish'd sun'. He carries himself with great dignity, and confronts Portia with a power- ful argument against prejudice. It is her attitude, not Shakespeare's, that we fi nd irritating, based as it is on her dislike for the colour of Moroc- co's skin. 'Let all of his complexion choose me so,' she says…" You can almost feel Portia's sigh of relief in that single line. And few can deny it is a sense of relief that would be shared by many in a similar pre- dicament today. But back to Shylock. " ere is no doubt that Shylock's role is based on anti-Semitic stereotypes, and that he is portrayed as a villain," Frig- gieri concedes. But this in itself, he argues, does not make e Merchant of Venice an anti-Semitic play. "We may still see Shylock as a vengeful individual without seeing him in this respect as a representative of his race. Even more importantly – and this is what I try to show in my production – what Shylock says and does brings out the hypocrisy of false Christians. His words and actions are an indictment of their attitude, re- vealing contradictions between what they preach and how they behave. Shylock is only following their ex- ample when he demands his pound of fl esh. ' e villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction…'." And because Shakespeare knew a thing or two about how to write plays, the resulting courtroom drama is tense and compelling by any stand- ard. Clearly he uses his stagecraft to maximise the audience's sympathy towards Shylock, even when turn- ing the knife in with an unreasonably cruel fi nal verdict. "At the trial Shylock is the object of hostility from everyone on stage. When sentence is passed, he is al- lowed to escape with his life only on condition that he become a Chris- tian. And it's a terrible condition. It is nothing but the imposition of the will of a Christian majority on a non- Christian 'alien'… and a modern au- dience will almost certainly react to this part of the sentence with disgust. ey should. And how does a direc- tor do that? Just by simply underly- ing, highlighting and emphasising how Shylock reacts to that sentence. He is completely destroyed…" is is, in Friggieri's view, a case of "the majority (in this case, Vene- tian Christians) imposing an unjust sentence, a terrible sentence, on a minority…" All in all, then, Shakespeare enthu- siasts are in for a more politically and socially charged theatrical experience than is normally associated with the Bard of Avon's lighter comedies. And this in turn points towards another extraordinary reality underpinning this year's performance. Shakespeare productions are no- toriously diffi cult (and expensive) to Interview By Raphael Vassallo maltatoday, SUNDAY, 6 JULY 2014 That pound of flesh again… RACISM Who is After the holocaust and the atrocities of the Nazi regime, and with the anti-Semitic monster raising its ugly head again, those taking part in producing or discussing The Merchant of Venice must show the dangers of all kinds of racial prejudice