It's 24 years since Gareth Armstrong opened the first Prague Fringe with his monodrama Shylock. Now aged 76, he’s back again giving a masterful performance that reflects a lifetime of theatrical experience including classical plays with the Royal Shakespeare Company, lighter productions on TV such as One Foot in the Grave, EastEnders and Birds of a Feather and West End plays by Noël Coward, Tom Stoppard and more Agatha Christie.
Movement characters, voices, props and costumes all tightly directed
Inevitably, the Bard’s speeches come ‘trippingly on the tongue’, but there is far more to this work than the obvious recitations from The Merchant of Venice. Armstrong explores Shylock through the eyes of the only other Jew in the play; indeed the only other Jew in the entire Shakespearian canon. As bit parts go, the character of Tubal is easily glossed over. He enters the play halfway through Act III, scene 1 and has just eight lines, yet he has an importance in just being there. With Tubal in the frame, the otherwise isolated Shylock’s has a friend, albeit only one. His presence asserts that Jewish communities were present in cities across Europe and played an important role in commerce and the practice of money lending that was forbidden to Christians.
We are reminded, of course, that they never forgot that scripture tells how the Jews begged Pilate to release Barabbas and crucify Jesus with the words, “His blood be upon us and our children”; all Jews for all time. It is not just Shylock who is on trial but all of Jewry.
Thus Armstrong’s story contains not only delightful renditions of extracts from the play, but also strives to put the character in context by looking at historical aspects of the Jews in Europe and the role over time.
Yet throughout, this remains a piece of theatre, replete with movement characters, voices, props and costumes all tightly directed.
