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Tina Packer’s fresh take on “The Merchant of Venice” at Shakespeare & Company

Michael Fuchs, Thomas Brazzle and Shahar Isaac.

Jonathan Epstein.

Tamara Hickey and Bella Merlin.

Shahar Isaac and Jonathan Epstein.

Thomas Brazzle.

Jonathan Epstein, John Hadden and Shahar Isaac.

Tamara Hickey and Bella Merlin.

Cloteal Horne.

Erick Avari.

Kate Abbruzzese and Jonathan Epstein.

Erick Avari, Thomas Brazzle, John Hadden and Jonathan Epstein.

Deaon Griffin-Pressley and Kate Abbruzzese.

Dylan Wittrock

John Hadden, Jonathan Epstein and Jason Asprey.

All photos by John Dolan

Jonathan Epstein’s bold Merchant of Venice Theatre Review by Gail M. Burns

The Merchant of Venice is fairly early play in the Shakespearean canon, and it is not a particularly good one, being a mash-up of two or three folk tales well known to Elizabethan audiences, that don’t hang together particularly well. Add to that that attitudes towards Jews are very different in 21st century America than they were in 16th century Britain, and you have a real “Problem Play.” When Shakespeare & Company last staged this work in 1998, then as now with Tina Packer directing and Jonathan Epstein playing Shylock, there was a great public outcry against the play, with questions raised about whether it could, or even should, be staged in modern times.

Having taken the plunge and mounted a new production, I can only imagine the dismay with which Packer and company watched racial tensions and violence erupt nationally during the course of their previews. Merchant… is the big Shakespearean production for 2016, the centerpiece of their season. Would the national mood turn audiences against their choice? Or would they be more open to exploring the prejudice that has always raged within society?

At least on the official opening night, the audience, comprised primarily of the press along with Shakespeare & Company board and company members and donors, was open to being schooled in the depth and persistence of anti-Semitism in particular and racial/ethnic/religious hatred in general. It was perfectly acceptable to be prejudiced in Shakespeare’s time, particularly on religious grounds, as Roman Catholics and Protestants of various ilks waged bloody warfare across most of Europe for the right to be considered the “true” religion of the people. Catholics considered Protestants, Jews, and Muslims alike to be pagans and heretics. Their souls were going to burn in hell if not “saved” by conversion to Christianity.

Merchant… has a “happy” ending in that two Jews – Shylock and his daughter Jessica – are “saved.” Jessica (Kate Abbruzzese) by choice, to wed the Gentile Lorenzo (Deaon Griffin-Pressley), and Shylock by force, through order of the court in order to save his life and at least half of his estate. Packer and her actors present Jessica’s conversion as ultimately bittersweet, enabling her to have husband and riches at the cost of father and faith, while Shylock’s forced conversion is presented as out and out tragedy. This is certainly not what Shakespeare intended, but it is believable and acceptable to modern audiences.

The other primary plot in Merchant… is the story of the wealthy and beautiful Portia (Tamara Hickey), whose late father has decreed that whichever suitor (and she has many!) selects the casket (a small ornamental box or chest for holding valuables, not a coffin) containing her portrait, will gain her hand in marriage and all her wealth and property as well. Bassanio (Shahar Isaac), companion to Antonio (John Hadden), the titular merchant of Venice, is Portia’s chosen love, but since this is a romantic/comic plot, we must first watch as Portia and her maid Nerissa (Bella Merlin) suffer as two completely unsuitable suitors, the Princes of Morocco and Arragon. both played as broadly comic ethnic stereotypes by Erick Avari, attempt to select the right casket. While Hickey and Merlin are delightful here and in all their scenes, I found Avari’s exaggerated mugging tedious and therefore less funny than intended.

With Jessica, Portia, and Nerissa – who marries Gratiano (Jason Asprey), one of a confusing clutter of male friends of Antonio and Bassanio – all safely wed, the play moves on to deal with the court proceedings to deal with Shylock’s sudden demand for his pound of flesh from Antonio when the long-standing feud between the two gentlemen is aggravated by Shylock’s double loss of his daughter and the 3,000 ducts owed him. Portia and Nerissa disguise themselves as men, a lawyer named Balthazar and his clerk, Stephano, and Portia untangles the legal Gordonian knot, but as they go unrecognized by their husbands they are also able to witness, and provoke, some questionable spousal behavior. This too gets cleared up and the husbands learn their lesson.

And, as I explained earlier, this was considered a happy ending for all for Elizabethan audiences. Everyone was married and/or Christian, and the villain had gotten his just desserts but had been spared both death and abject poverty.

Packer plays the anti-Semitism and other racial and ethnic attacks for exactly what they are. The Packer Playhouse is now configured as a theatre in the round and hung from the balcony surrounding the stage are banners with quotations from many sources which the process of working on the play evoked from the actors. They form a “Memory Theatre,” as do the writings of Aemilia/Emily Bassano Lanier, who Packer believes may well have been the Dark Lady of Shakespeare’s sonnets, which cover the white cross on the black stage floor.

The cast is multi-cultural, with some actors cast obviously against type, and Packer has added in much peripheral business to emphasize what a cultural/racial/religious melting pot the bustling port of Venice in the late 16th century. While these moments add color to the production, they also distract from what is already a cluttered canvas (there are three separate “friends of Antonio and Bassanio” named Salanio, Salario, and Salerio for no apparent reason.) The play offers up a hefty dose of hatred and blind prejudice without any added dimensions.

Packer has also added a homosexual love affair for Antonio and Bassanio. While Shakespeare’s text has the two men expressing their “love” repeatedly, that kind of language is common between same sex pairs throughout pre-20th century literature without any sexual relationship implied or expected. Having this pair obviously sexually entangled early on in the play and then again in the courtroom scene where Bassanio’s wife, Portia, is there to witness them sets up a love triangle where Shakespeare didn’t intend one to exist and which isn’t resolved by the text.

The clowns in Merchant… are Launcelot Gobbo (Thomas Brazzle), a servant first to Shylock and then to Bassanio, and his blind father Old Gobbo (Michael Fuchs.) These talented actors get a fun scene together and Brazzle reappears several times for brief interludes. Then suddenly, at his final appearance in Act V, scene I, Packer has him perform a bizarre attack on current North American racism with a minstrel show turn that is overwrought and out of place. Tyler Kinney’s costumes set the play in Shakespeare’s own time, so the relentless insertion, nay, intrusion, of 21st century language and ideas is annoying and distracting.

But thanks to Kinney, set designer Kris Stone and lighting designer Matthew Miller this show looks wonderful. Kinney’s costumes show the attractive and talented cast to good advantage, and have a good freedom of movement as well, despite the period attire. Stone has filled the air above the stage with a multitude of many sizes of clear spheres, inside of which are tiny twinkling lights and miniature all-white renderings of various props from the play. I was reminded of the balloons at the Rockefeller Center Skating Rink when I was a child which featured little white snowmen encased in a snow-flecked globe. These spheres rise and fall and change color, melding seamlessly with the rest of Miller’s lighting plot, and with original music by Daniel Levy.

In 1998 people asked Packer whether Merchant… should still be performed at the dawn of the 21st century. It seems that in 2016 that she has responded by mounting a production that contains a hodge-podge of 21st century references and allusions which comes closer to proving that it should be performed as written, rather than requiring any extraordinary efforts at up-dating. In the end, to paraphrase Lin-Manuel Miranda, hate is hate is hate is hate is hate is hate is hate is hate. This is the hate that led directly to the Holocaust – Shylock must wear a red yarmulke instead of a yellow star, but its intention is the same – and is still with us today. That is this play’s message to 21st century society, and we would do well to heed it.

Shakespeare & Company presents The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, July 1-August 21, 2016. Directed by Tina Packer; Associate Director, Elizabeth Aspenlieder; Set design, Kris Stone; Costumes, Tyler Kinney; Lighting, Matthew Miller; Composer/Sound, Daniel Levy; Choreography, Kristin Wold; Music, Justine Bowe Cast: Jonathan Epstein (Shylock), Jason Asprey (Graziano), Kate Abbruzzese (Jessica), Peter Andersen (Solanio), Erick Avari (Duke/Morocco/Aragon), Thomas Brazzle (Gobbo), John Hadden (Antonio), Cloteal L. Horne (Salarino), Dylan Wittrock (Salerio), Tamara Hickey (Portia), Shahar Isaac (Bassanio), Bella Merlin (Nerissa), Michael Fuchs (Old Gobbo/Tubal), and Deaon Griffin-Pressley (Lorenzo); at the Tina Packer Playhouse on the Shakespeare & Company campus, 70 Kemble Street in Lenox, MA. The show runs just over three hours with one intermission. www.shakespeare.org (413) 637-3353

“An Iliad” with Michael F. Toomey set for October run at Shakespeare & Company

Michael F. Toomey in rehearsal. Photo by Jon Hed. Lenox, MA – The OBIE Award winning play An Iliad comes to Shakespeare & Company with Michael F. Toomey starring as The Poet in this one-man tour-de-force. Award winning actor and director Jonathan Epstein takes the reins on this fresh take of a timeless classic that also features musician Gregory Boover. Written by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare,…

Timothy Adam Venable, Alexander Sovronsky, Jonny Lee Davenport, and Michael F. Toomey. Photo by Kevin Sprague

Ben Epstein and Jonathan Epstein. Photo by Kevin Sprague.

Kelly Kilgore and Henry Clarke. Photo by Kevin Sprague

Jonathan Epstein condenses Henry IV, Parts I and II into one whirlwind evening Theatre Review by Gail M. Burns

Shakespeare’s two history plays purporting to be about King Henry IV of England (1367-1413 CE) are actually about the coming of age of his son, the future King Henry V (1386-1422 CE). They form the center of the Bard’s tetralogy which begins with Richard II and ends with Henry V, although some will argue that Henry VI, Parts I, II and III are also a part of what becomes then a seven play cycle. All of this was quite recent history for Shakespeare (1564-1616 CE) and these plays were not only very popular entertainment, but also formed the Tudor equivalent of the required high school course in American History we are familiar with today. At a time when most people were illiterate and few had any formal schooling, they could learn the Royally Sanctioned history of their land at the theatre while laughing at Sir John Falstaff and his merry band of thieves and whores.

Performed in their entirety, Henry IV, Part I and Henry IV, Part II occupy the stage for a good seven hours. Hard to perform apart contextually, they are impossibly expensive and time consuming for a modern company to perform together. Starting off last year with a production of Richard II, Shakespeare & Company wanted to continue on with the history plays, and so commissioned actor/director Jonathan Epstein to condense Henry IV into one play. The resulting work runs a solid three hours, and when you add in the much-needed 20 minute intermission you walk out of the theatre about three and a half hours after you entered. Thankfully the evening performances start at 7:30, not 8 pm.

Epstein has cut much of the history in favor of the excellent comedy in the plays, but sadly that renders the politics and battles that remain even harder for the average audience member to understand. Adding to that muddle, just about every significant political player is named Henry (and sometimes called Harry or Hal), which is neither Epstein nor Shakespeare’s fault, that’s just history. For the sake of clarity in this review we will refer to them as Henry IV, Prince Hal (the future King Henry V), Hotspur (Henry Percy), and Percy (Hotspur’s father, the Earl of Northumberland).

Basic political plot line: Henry IV (Jonathan Epstein) had Richard II murdered and usurped the throne. Now the powerful Percy family – Percy (Kevin G. Coleman), his brother the Earl of Worcester (Michael J. Toomey), his son Hotspur (Timothy Adam Venable), and Edmund Mortimer (Alexander Sovronsky) who is Hotspur’s wife’s brother – who had supported him, grow restless and plot to overthrown him with the aid of the Welsh chieftain Owain Glyndwr* (Johnny Lee Davenport), who is also Mortimer’s father-in-law. The King and his two sons, Prince Hal (Henry Clarke) and Prince John of Lancaster (Benjamin Epstein), mount a successful resistance at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403. The womenfolk – Queen Joanna (Ariel Bock), Hostpur’s wife Kate Percy (Kelly Kilgore), and Lady Catrin Mortimer (Tori Grace) – also play their parts in the uprising.

But that’s not what this play is about. Its about Prince Hal’s metamorphosis from wild-living youth to responsible monarch. By the end the bookends of his youth – his father and his drinking buddy Falstaff (Malcolm Ingram) are dead. Here Epstein makes it clear that Falstaff dies of a broken heart after the newly crowned Henry V publicly disavows him and his carousing comrades – Bardolph (Toomey), Mistress Quickly (Bock), Doll Tearsheet (Kilgore), Mistress Fang (Grace), Justice Shallow (Coleman), Ancient Pistol (Venable), Francis (Benjamin Epstein), Davy and Peter (Sovronsky).

Have you got it all straight? No? Well, if you are one of the few who answered in the affirmative, bravo. The whole thing is overwhelming. As if keeping the the characters and the history straight (and remember that Shakespeare’s version isn’t factual, nor does Epstein’s version coincide with Shakespeare’s) wasn’t enough, Epstein has decided to confuse the era. The costumes by Arthur Oliver, are handsome and versatile, but also deliberately timeless. Actors carry iPhones and laptops. They pack pistols along with swords. The modern electronic diversions are often good gags, but Shakespeare’s lines alone have generated plenty of laughs without them over the centuries.

What saves this production from mind-numbing disaster is a vivid and fiery central performance by Clarke as Prince Hal. Clarke is young, handsome – he even bears a slight resemblance to the current Prince Harry – and talented. He commands the stage. I sincerely hope the Company has the good sense to have him come back next season and star in Henry V, because after seeing him here it is impossible to imagine another actor in the role.

Ingram has played Falstaff before in Lenox, in The Merry Wives of Windsor in 2006. While he is the right age, he is the wrong shape and temperament. To see Michael J. Toomey, who, although yet a little young, would be a fabulous Falstaff standing beside Ingram on stage practically made me weep. A gray wig and a little padding and Voila! Instead Toomey is starring this summer as Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a role to which he less well suited, and which could have easily gone to one of the talented women in the Company.

But my personal tastes aside, Ingram creates a mild and mature Falstaff who carries his end of the plot manfully.

Late in the play we come across the best laughs of the play as Falstaff meets up with Coleman and Bock as Justices Shallow and Silence respectively. But if there were characters and scenes that could have been cut in the interest of the audience’s sore bottoms and sanity, it would have been these.

Bock and Kilgore as Mistress Quickly and Doll Tearsheet (a lady of negotiable virtue) whoop it up with Falstaff and crew at the Boar’s Head Tavern in Eastcheap, London. Kilgore lists “pole work” as a special talent on her Web site, and there are poles aplenty in the Packer Playhouse, but Epstein and movement director Susan Dibble have her swinging high above the audience on ropes in some suggestive and colorful rags instead.

Set designer Travis George has used the Playhouse in new and inventive ways, adding levels and layers to the floor and adding rolling and flying pieces that allow ease of movement from one level to another and double as beds and tables when necessary.

Toomey has choreographed some exciting fight scenes utilizing guns, swords, and fists. Blank cartridges are used and everyone is safe, but if loud gunshots in enclosed spaces bother you, be forewarned.

As he did for Midsummer, Alexander Sovronsky has composed the musical score, designed the soundscape, and acts as Music Director, as well as performing several roles, participating in both the comic horseplay and the combat scenes, and playing a couple of instruments on stage. And he does it all really well too. I am impressed!

Henry IV, Part I and Henry IV, Part II, in their entirety, are still on my Shakespearean Bucket List, but I am glad to finally see some version of them on stage, even if I did stagger out of the theatre with a sore bottom and a headache. If you are a Shakespeare buff, but not a purist as Epsetin takes many liberties with this conflation, this production may be equally satisfying to you, but for the casual theatre-goer it may well prove too much.

* This name is commonly anglicized and pronounced Owen Glendower. Here the last name, by which the character is chiefly known, is pronounced Glin-dur.

Shakespeare & Company presents Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, an adaptation by Jonathan Epstein of the plays by William Shakespeare. Director: Jonathan Epstein, Assistant Director – Lavina Jadhwina, Set Designer – Travis George, Lighting Designer – Matthew Adelson, Composer/Sound Designer/Music Director – Alexander Sovronsky, Costume Designer – Arthur Oliver, Movement/Choreographer – Susan Dibble, Fight Choreographer – Michael F. Toomey, Stage Managers – Diane Healy & Hope Rose Kelly Cast: Ariel Bock – Mistress Quickly, Queen Joanna of England & Justice Silence; Henry Clarke – Prince Hal; Kevin G. Coleman – Percy (Earl of Northumberland) & Justice Robert Shallow; Johnny Lee Davenport – Ned Poins & Owain Glyndwr; Benjamin Epstein – Prince John of Lancaster & Francis; Jonathan Epstein – King Henry IV; Tori Grace – Elizabeth Neville, Mistress Fang & Lady Catrin Mortimer; Malcolm Ingram – Sir John Falstaff; Kelly Kilgore – Lady Kate Percy & Doll Tearsheet; Robert Lohbauer – Lord Chief Justice; Alexander Sovronsky – Peter, Edmund Mortimer & Davy Westmorland; Michael F. Toomey – Bardolph Peto & Earl of Worcester; and Timothy Adam Venable – Henry Percy (called Hotspur) & Ancient Pistol.

Three and a half hours with one intermission. August 2-31, 2014 at the Packer Playhouse on the Shakespeare & Company campus, 70 Kemble Street, Lenox, MA 01230. 413-637-3353. www.shakespeare.org

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BY: Olga Khazan

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The worst Ebola virus outbreak ever is ravaging Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. So far, the disease has killed 670 people and infected more than 1,000, including an American doctor and aid worker.

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Jonathan Epstein adapts, directs and stars in Shakespeare’s Henry IV Aug 2-31

In rehearsal: Henry Clarke (l) and Jonathan Epstein. Photo by Elizabeth Aspenlieder.

A sweeping spectacle of bawdy buffoonery and bloody rebellion, director Jonathan Epstein’s razor sharp and condensed adaptation of Henry IV delivers both parts in one dynamic evening of theatre. Performances run in the Tina Packer Playhouse August 2 – August 31, 2014. Press Opening is Friday, August 7, at 7:00pm.