Tracy-Ann Oberman has claimed that her touring production of The Merchant of Venice 1936 has had to increase security measures in the wake of violence in Israel and Gaza.
The recent outbreak of violence in the region began on 7 October after the Palestinian militant organisation Hamas launched an attack on Israel. As of Thursday (19 October), at least 3,785 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since 7 October, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
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Oberman began touring The Merchant of Venice 1936 across the UK in February. Based on Shakespeare’s 1598 drama The Merchant of Venice, Oberman’s 2023 take features herself as Shylock, a Jewish businesswoman who lends money to a merchant as part of a high-stakes deal.
In a new op-ed for The Spectator, the actor and writer expressed her upset at a surge in antisemitism as a result of the Israel-Gaza conflict.
“We’re on a 10-week tour and I’ve been moved beyond words at the reactions of audiences and critics. Yet for the last week, the production has had to have security men around keeping an eye on things. It’s like a dystopian nightmare,” Oberman wrote in the 21 October edition of the publication.
“A Jewish actress putting on a play about antisemitism which needs to be made secure because of Jew-hating extremists. As one reviewer said: ‘Written in 1600, set in 1936, as relevant today in 2023.’ Ain’t that the truth.”
Oberman added: “Ever since Hamas’ terror attack on Israel, with the pogrom-like brutality towards babies, women and girls, including rape and burning alive, I have felt broken. On stage, when I say the lines ‘When you prick us do we not bleed? When you tickle us, do we not laugh? When you poison us do we not die?,’ I weep for all the innocent victims, and I know we must stand together against an evil that wants to rip us apart. And the audiences cry too.”
Tracy-Ann Oberman— (Getty Images)
When Oberman spoke to The Independent about bringing a version of Shakespeare’s story to the stage earlier this year, she expressed her hopes that this production would address the antisemitic elements that exist in the original.
“It’s not just an acting project for me, it’s a legacy project,” she explained.
“I want to make people look again at The Merchant of Venice. I don’t think it’s good enough to take it off the syllabus and not perform it because people are scared of it, and they don’t understand it and teachers don’t really know how to teach it. Quite a few people have told me that they were taught it without any reference to antisemitism.”
