Shylock! Shelach! Shakespeare's looming, incredible, irritated, wounded, evil(?) and only Jewish man in all his works. Sorry. I'm forgetting Tubal. Guy Masterson, as Tubal/the actor playing Tubal, this piece's sole performer, will not let you forget Tubal. Tubal is Shylock's only friend. He has only eight lines, but he is, this production contends, vital to Shakesperare's Merchant of Venice and vital to Shylock.On a set with five hung banners behind, each spattered with words for Jews in numerous languages, we are taken through the history, the performance and the character of Shylock. Writer/Director Gareth Armstrong gives us four narratives: that of The Merchant of Venice; performances of play and those who have taken the part of Shylock; the history of Jews within Europe, how that relates to the origins of the play and how Shylock has been perceived in relation to those points in time; and finally, the narrative of Tubal, our guide, who Armstrong has in the back of Shylock's scenes (silent, of course) exploring his motives and machinations.It is the engaging qualities of Masterson's self-deprecating Tubal who holds these interlaced narratives together, allowing us to dip in and out of history as to when it is relevant pertaining to Shylock's speeches. For modern audiences, The Merchant of Venice is troubling for its perceived anti-semitism and it is this the performance plays on. Tubal is the fulcrum of a sympathetic reading: the information Tubal relates in those eight lines of Act III, Scene 1 show Shylock to be of high standing in the Jewish community, to have friends and, more importantly, it leads into one of Shakespeare's most eloquent speeches. And here is where Armstrong's production transcends its theatrical historiography and becomes an important piece of drama.Masterson's Tubal inverts the order of Act 1, Scene III, setting up the contemporary history for us and leaving Shylock at the end of the Tubal-Shylock mini-scene, stood, frozen, unable to comprehend his situation. The lights go down and ominous music booms from behind. Rummaging in his suitcase in the dark, when the lights come up, we see Masterson complete with skullcap, ginger Jew wig (Judas was thought to be ginger) and hook-nosed mask. He launches into the start of Shylock's famous ‘If you prick us do we not bleed?’ speech, which with literally the mask of prejudice on his face, makes it doubly powerful and gives, further, an almost-reasonable angle to the latter and bloodthirsty end of the speech when he takes the mask off and confronts us. It's a powerful image and a powerful addition to our understanding of the play.And here's where Shylock gets four stars instead of five. If you're a Shakespeare whore, the above will have appealed to you. As the average man off the street, the performance will engage you and prick your interest into seeing The Merchant of Venice, but you may get lost in historical context.
