REVIEW
✭✭✭✭☆ 4/5
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE 1936
“The most important Shakespeare production of the year”
Daily Telegraph
DIRECTED BY BRIGID LARMOUR
performing at
Southend's Palace Theatre
24 – 29 March 2025
✭✭✭✭☆ 4/5
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE 1936
“The most important Shakespeare production of the year”
Daily Telegraph
DIRECTED BY BRIGID LARMOUR
performing at
Southend's Palace Theatre
24 – 29 March 2025
A thought provoking evening
It is 1936, and the Black Shirts led by Sir Oswald Mosley are on the march. They preach their anti-Semitic views leading to protests and riots. This production of Merchant of Venice is a different take on Shakespeare’s famous play, bringing it into the 20th Century.
Although, in the Elizabethan period the playwright was less anti-Semitic than Christopher Marlowe, with his The Jew of Malta, it is still a difficult play to perform. Today the devious Jewish moneylender is viewed more sympathetically and, not seen as the evil person he was depicted originally.
This production relocates the action to the East End of London. It is directed by Brigid Larmour, who also adapted the play with Tracy-Ann Oberman.
Oberman, who is well known from TV shows such as New Tricks, East Enders and Midsomer Murders, plays the Jewish moneylender. She demands ‘a pound of flesh’ from Antonio (Raymond Coulthard) in payment for a bond. The latter is depicted as a racist Black Shirt.
The production is a passion project of Oberman, who has reimagined the Shakespeare play to convey the experiences of her Great Grandmother. She was a Jewish immigrant at the time of the fascist marches in the East End of London in 1936 that led to the Cable Street riots. She plays the role with an indignant anger and a core of steel. Her demand for flesh seems less a demand for vengeance, but more outrage at her persecution.
The rest of the characters are depicted as fascists, even the local ‘copper.’ The socialites greet the introduction of Shylock’s daughter Jessica (Grainne Dromgoole) as Lorenzo’s wife with cool disdain. The racism is hidden, but there all the same. However, I was unsure why Jessica was played as a schoolgirl, before she eloped with Lorenzo and Shylock’s money and jewels.
Certain liberties have been taken with the script. Some scenes have been cut, and certain others moved around, to lay more emphasis on Shylock. It works very well and is most effective. There is even the addition of a family Sabbath Kiddush ceremony blessing the bread.
In addition, there are some clever background effects. There was the sound of breaking glass to remind the audience of Kristallnacht in Germany and Klezmer music. The staging was minimalist, but excellently conveyed the emotional content of Jews living under the fascist threat in England in the 1930s.
The scene where Portia (Georgie Fellows), played as a thirties socialist in a bias cut silk dress entertains her possible suitors, was split into three different scenes. This worked well, but in an edited play, it seemed a little irrelevant.
However, when Portia and Nerissa (Evie Hargreaves) disguise themselves as men in suits, for the court scene, it didn’t work for me. They looked like young boys, and if anything, the Quality of Mercy speech was underplayed and lost its impact. However, it came over, as it should, as complete hypocrisy, when she asks for mercy. The same doesn’t apply, to the racist thugs in the play who display none.
In a similar way the famous Shylock speech, ‘If you prick us, do we not bleed?' seemed to be thrown away.
Evie Hargreaves also provided the comic relief of Mary the Irish maid, who replaced the character Lancelot Gobbo from the original play.
There were some interesting video backdrops of Oswald Mosley giving speeches and newsreels of fascist marches. This set the context of what was happening in the play. The finale was a demonstration of the Cable Street riots. The working class community of Jews, Irish and other ethnic groups including Catholics and Protestants, all pulled together and barricaded the streets to prevent the Black Shirt march. The cry of, ‘They Shall Not Pass,’ rang out. This provided a very dramatic ending.
This re imagined production shows that it is still relevant to happenings in the world today. It could be any period at anytime. Tracy-Ann Oberman and Brigid Larmour have provided a new slant on a difficult and problematic play. It was a very thought provoking evening.
Review: Jacquee Storozynski-Toll
Performances continue until 29 March
Ticket Price
£18.00 - £49.00
A transaction fee of up to £3.95 may apply.
Box Office: 0343 310 0030
The tour continues:-
1 – 5 Apr 2025
Birmingham Rep Theatre
8 – 12 Apr 2025
Richmond Theatre
Although, in the Elizabethan period the playwright was less anti-Semitic than Christopher Marlowe, with his The Jew of Malta, it is still a difficult play to perform. Today the devious Jewish moneylender is viewed more sympathetically and, not seen as the evil person he was depicted originally.
This production relocates the action to the East End of London. It is directed by Brigid Larmour, who also adapted the play with Tracy-Ann Oberman.
Oberman, who is well known from TV shows such as New Tricks, East Enders and Midsomer Murders, plays the Jewish moneylender. She demands ‘a pound of flesh’ from Antonio (Raymond Coulthard) in payment for a bond. The latter is depicted as a racist Black Shirt.
The production is a passion project of Oberman, who has reimagined the Shakespeare play to convey the experiences of her Great Grandmother. She was a Jewish immigrant at the time of the fascist marches in the East End of London in 1936 that led to the Cable Street riots. She plays the role with an indignant anger and a core of steel. Her demand for flesh seems less a demand for vengeance, but more outrage at her persecution.
The rest of the characters are depicted as fascists, even the local ‘copper.’ The socialites greet the introduction of Shylock’s daughter Jessica (Grainne Dromgoole) as Lorenzo’s wife with cool disdain. The racism is hidden, but there all the same. However, I was unsure why Jessica was played as a schoolgirl, before she eloped with Lorenzo and Shylock’s money and jewels.
Certain liberties have been taken with the script. Some scenes have been cut, and certain others moved around, to lay more emphasis on Shylock. It works very well and is most effective. There is even the addition of a family Sabbath Kiddush ceremony blessing the bread.
In addition, there are some clever background effects. There was the sound of breaking glass to remind the audience of Kristallnacht in Germany and Klezmer music. The staging was minimalist, but excellently conveyed the emotional content of Jews living under the fascist threat in England in the 1930s.
The scene where Portia (Georgie Fellows), played as a thirties socialist in a bias cut silk dress entertains her possible suitors, was split into three different scenes. This worked well, but in an edited play, it seemed a little irrelevant.
However, when Portia and Nerissa (Evie Hargreaves) disguise themselves as men in suits, for the court scene, it didn’t work for me. They looked like young boys, and if anything, the Quality of Mercy speech was underplayed and lost its impact. However, it came over, as it should, as complete hypocrisy, when she asks for mercy. The same doesn’t apply, to the racist thugs in the play who display none.
In a similar way the famous Shylock speech, ‘If you prick us, do we not bleed?' seemed to be thrown away.
Evie Hargreaves also provided the comic relief of Mary the Irish maid, who replaced the character Lancelot Gobbo from the original play.
There were some interesting video backdrops of Oswald Mosley giving speeches and newsreels of fascist marches. This set the context of what was happening in the play. The finale was a demonstration of the Cable Street riots. The working class community of Jews, Irish and other ethnic groups including Catholics and Protestants, all pulled together and barricaded the streets to prevent the Black Shirt march. The cry of, ‘They Shall Not Pass,’ rang out. This provided a very dramatic ending.
This re imagined production shows that it is still relevant to happenings in the world today. It could be any period at anytime. Tracy-Ann Oberman and Brigid Larmour have provided a new slant on a difficult and problematic play. It was a very thought provoking evening.
Review: Jacquee Storozynski-Toll
Performances continue until 29 March
Ticket Price
£18.00 - £49.00
A transaction fee of up to £3.95 may apply.
Box Office: 0343 310 0030
The tour continues:-
1 – 5 Apr 2025
Birmingham Rep Theatre
8 – 12 Apr 2025
Richmond Theatre
Tracy Ann Oberman & The Merchant of Venice | INTERVIEW
“The women in my family were as tough as nails.” Tracy-Ann Oberman is herself no stranger to tough cookies – she’s a formidable actor on stage and screen. But here she is speaking about her great-grandmother and aunts, women with nicknames like Machine-Gun Molly and Sarah Portugal. They came to London from antisemitic eastern Europe at the turn of the last century, and despite all odds managed to build a life and make a living.
Oberman’s family history helped unlock Shakespeare’s enduringly controversial play, The Merchant of Venice. Her relatives survived the Battle of Cable Street in 1936 – a little-known event in London’s East End, when the Jewish community was targeted by the British Union of Fascists, led by Oswald Mosely. Mosley’s blackshirts marched through the area, only to be confounded when the non-Jewish community stood by their Jewish neighbours.
In The Merchant of Venice 1936, Shakespeare’s harsh plot snaps brilliantly into place against this backdrop. Shylock, its anti-hero, is a Jewish moneylender who becomes entangled in the affairs of wealthy non-Jews and suffers terribly for it. In this new version, Oswald Mosely inspires Antonio, the merchant who takes a loan from Shylock and offers a seemingly fanciful penalty for defaulting: a pound of flesh. The heiress Portia becomes “a beautiful glacial Mitford type, awful” – her famous courtroom speech about “the quality of mercy” emerges as an act of hypocrisy rather than humanity. And Shylock changes sex, played by Oberman as a single mother, fiercely committed to her independence and her daughter. “I have one daughter,” she says – “it's an intense relationship!”
Oberman is an impressively versatile actor – diamond sharp on stage at the RSC and National Theatre, in comedies like Friday Night Dinner and Toast of London, and as Dirty Den’s nemesis Chrissie Watts in EastEnders. Yet playing Shylock in The Merchant of Venice was never on her radar – growing up, she says, “the play always fascinated and repulsed me.”
Reclaiming the play from a Jewish perspective has proved a transformative experience. It is directed by Brigid Larmour, former artistic director of Watford Palace Theatre: the pair of them have become, says Oberman, “walking encyclopaedias of this world.” They assembled a strong company of actors – “We call ourselves the Cable Street Collective!” says Oberman. Joseph Millson’s sneering Antonio and Georgie Fellow’s icy Portia are chilly foils to this ardent Shylock. The result is painfully funny, genuinely upsetting – and unexpectedly moving as the events of the play meld with the heightened drama of the Battle of Cable Street.
Having previously sold out in both the West End and on tour, the critically acclaimed production returns to London in December & January and embarks on a UK tour from February 2025. “We’ve had lots of people crying and we get standing ovations,” says Oberman, reflecting on why the show has struck such a chord with spectators. “Whilst they might not have liked my Shylock, they certainly understood why she wants that pound of flesh. She stands in the courtroom with her handbag, with everything stacked against her. A lot of people know that feeling – believing the law is on their side, but discovering it's only on the side of people that have power.”
This production sat in Oberman’s head for years, as she researched and planned and waited for lockdowns to pass. But now that it has met an audience, what has surprised her? “The thing that surprised me most was the court case,” she considers. “Just how powerful it was to see this woman backed into a corner by all these men, with the palpable hatred and misogyny. It was electric – you could cut the atmosphere in the auditorium with a knife. That was a revelation.”
Playing Shylock as a woman, she insists, isn’t about softening the character – “I didn't want to make her a victim or change her role in the story” – but, she adds, “maybe I underestimated the impact of a female Shylock. There are a couple of very shocking moments that really upset audiences. In an early scene Antonio comes to borrow money, and Shylock describes him spitting on her and kicking her like a dog – when that behaviour is directed at a woman, it heightens the antisemitism. I think people also see a woman with her rage and anger. She loses her daughter, her money – she loses everything. And when you tell somebody that they're a monster for long enough, they become that monster.”
The production vividly summons a febrile moment in British history. “My dream is that the battle of Cable Street will be taught as part of the British civil rights movement,” Oberman says. “Mosley had been sending his blackshirts down into Cable Street smashing doors, breaking windows, attacking synagogues and people on the streets, putting up the most horrific leaflets straight out of Hitler's playbook. But my great grandmother always reminded me that their neighbours – their Irish neighbours, the Afro-Caribbean community, the dockers, the working classes – all stood together. That was a beautiful moment.”
It is clearly immersed in history – but does this also feel like a show about the present? Absolutely, Oberman says. “At a time when we are looking at Britain's involvement in colonialism and the slave trade, I think we also have to look at Britain's flirtation with fascism. Oswald Mosley and King Edward VIII, both great friends of Hitler, came close to power – we dodged a bullet. The great message of the play is about the pulling together of all communities – we're better together, we're stronger together, especially at times of huge financial and political insecurity. The past shows us what happens when we look inwards: we become very nationalistic and try to pit minorities against each other. We have to be vigilant.”
Oberman doesn’t hide how much this project is personal to her – but it seems she’s not alone. “What has been very moving is how many people want to stay and talk at the end,” she says. What kind of conversations does the play provoke? “A lot of people talk about their own family’s immigrant experience. Young political people want to talk about the Battle of Cable Street, and people who'd never seen a Shakespeare about why they'd found it so accessible. One man came in with about 20 fascist newspapers from the 1930s that he'd found in his father's loft, which we’ve used as part of our graphics. There were big conversations: is the play antisemitic? Was Shakespeare? Lots of really interesting conversations.”
Part of the impetus behind The Merchant of Venice 1936 was teachers telling Oberman they felt anxious about discussing this contentious play in their classrooms. So the production is accompanied by a prolific strand of education work, alongside the activist group Stand Up to Racism. The team have been into schools and created a pack to support teachers. “We've also created an online world which people can look at before or after seeing the play. It's an incredible resource talking about the play, the 1930s, the history of antisemitism and racism, Oswald Mosley, everything you could want.”
It’s still rare to see a woman standing dead centre in a Shakespeare production – though Oberman tells me, “I can honestly say that when I went into this, it was never with an ego about playing Shylock, it was about wanting to tell the story. I just put my soul into it.” And has it been the experience she hoped? “Every single bit of it has been a complete joy. It's been more than a piece of theatre – for me, it's been a mission. And it lived up to all my expectations.”
David Jays
The Merchant of Venice 1936 plays at the Palace Theatre, Westcliff on Sea from Mon 24 - Sat 29 Mar 2025 Tickets: merchantofvenice1936.co.uk
Oberman’s family history helped unlock Shakespeare’s enduringly controversial play, The Merchant of Venice. Her relatives survived the Battle of Cable Street in 1936 – a little-known event in London’s East End, when the Jewish community was targeted by the British Union of Fascists, led by Oswald Mosely. Mosley’s blackshirts marched through the area, only to be confounded when the non-Jewish community stood by their Jewish neighbours.
In The Merchant of Venice 1936, Shakespeare’s harsh plot snaps brilliantly into place against this backdrop. Shylock, its anti-hero, is a Jewish moneylender who becomes entangled in the affairs of wealthy non-Jews and suffers terribly for it. In this new version, Oswald Mosely inspires Antonio, the merchant who takes a loan from Shylock and offers a seemingly fanciful penalty for defaulting: a pound of flesh. The heiress Portia becomes “a beautiful glacial Mitford type, awful” – her famous courtroom speech about “the quality of mercy” emerges as an act of hypocrisy rather than humanity. And Shylock changes sex, played by Oberman as a single mother, fiercely committed to her independence and her daughter. “I have one daughter,” she says – “it's an intense relationship!”
Oberman is an impressively versatile actor – diamond sharp on stage at the RSC and National Theatre, in comedies like Friday Night Dinner and Toast of London, and as Dirty Den’s nemesis Chrissie Watts in EastEnders. Yet playing Shylock in The Merchant of Venice was never on her radar – growing up, she says, “the play always fascinated and repulsed me.”
Reclaiming the play from a Jewish perspective has proved a transformative experience. It is directed by Brigid Larmour, former artistic director of Watford Palace Theatre: the pair of them have become, says Oberman, “walking encyclopaedias of this world.” They assembled a strong company of actors – “We call ourselves the Cable Street Collective!” says Oberman. Joseph Millson’s sneering Antonio and Georgie Fellow’s icy Portia are chilly foils to this ardent Shylock. The result is painfully funny, genuinely upsetting – and unexpectedly moving as the events of the play meld with the heightened drama of the Battle of Cable Street.
Having previously sold out in both the West End and on tour, the critically acclaimed production returns to London in December & January and embarks on a UK tour from February 2025. “We’ve had lots of people crying and we get standing ovations,” says Oberman, reflecting on why the show has struck such a chord with spectators. “Whilst they might not have liked my Shylock, they certainly understood why she wants that pound of flesh. She stands in the courtroom with her handbag, with everything stacked against her. A lot of people know that feeling – believing the law is on their side, but discovering it's only on the side of people that have power.”
This production sat in Oberman’s head for years, as she researched and planned and waited for lockdowns to pass. But now that it has met an audience, what has surprised her? “The thing that surprised me most was the court case,” she considers. “Just how powerful it was to see this woman backed into a corner by all these men, with the palpable hatred and misogyny. It was electric – you could cut the atmosphere in the auditorium with a knife. That was a revelation.”
Playing Shylock as a woman, she insists, isn’t about softening the character – “I didn't want to make her a victim or change her role in the story” – but, she adds, “maybe I underestimated the impact of a female Shylock. There are a couple of very shocking moments that really upset audiences. In an early scene Antonio comes to borrow money, and Shylock describes him spitting on her and kicking her like a dog – when that behaviour is directed at a woman, it heightens the antisemitism. I think people also see a woman with her rage and anger. She loses her daughter, her money – she loses everything. And when you tell somebody that they're a monster for long enough, they become that monster.”
The production vividly summons a febrile moment in British history. “My dream is that the battle of Cable Street will be taught as part of the British civil rights movement,” Oberman says. “Mosley had been sending his blackshirts down into Cable Street smashing doors, breaking windows, attacking synagogues and people on the streets, putting up the most horrific leaflets straight out of Hitler's playbook. But my great grandmother always reminded me that their neighbours – their Irish neighbours, the Afro-Caribbean community, the dockers, the working classes – all stood together. That was a beautiful moment.”
It is clearly immersed in history – but does this also feel like a show about the present? Absolutely, Oberman says. “At a time when we are looking at Britain's involvement in colonialism and the slave trade, I think we also have to look at Britain's flirtation with fascism. Oswald Mosley and King Edward VIII, both great friends of Hitler, came close to power – we dodged a bullet. The great message of the play is about the pulling together of all communities – we're better together, we're stronger together, especially at times of huge financial and political insecurity. The past shows us what happens when we look inwards: we become very nationalistic and try to pit minorities against each other. We have to be vigilant.”
Oberman doesn’t hide how much this project is personal to her – but it seems she’s not alone. “What has been very moving is how many people want to stay and talk at the end,” she says. What kind of conversations does the play provoke? “A lot of people talk about their own family’s immigrant experience. Young political people want to talk about the Battle of Cable Street, and people who'd never seen a Shakespeare about why they'd found it so accessible. One man came in with about 20 fascist newspapers from the 1930s that he'd found in his father's loft, which we’ve used as part of our graphics. There were big conversations: is the play antisemitic? Was Shakespeare? Lots of really interesting conversations.”
Part of the impetus behind The Merchant of Venice 1936 was teachers telling Oberman they felt anxious about discussing this contentious play in their classrooms. So the production is accompanied by a prolific strand of education work, alongside the activist group Stand Up to Racism. The team have been into schools and created a pack to support teachers. “We've also created an online world which people can look at before or after seeing the play. It's an incredible resource talking about the play, the 1930s, the history of antisemitism and racism, Oswald Mosley, everything you could want.”
It’s still rare to see a woman standing dead centre in a Shakespeare production – though Oberman tells me, “I can honestly say that when I went into this, it was never with an ego about playing Shylock, it was about wanting to tell the story. I just put my soul into it.” And has it been the experience she hoped? “Every single bit of it has been a complete joy. It's been more than a piece of theatre – for me, it's been a mission. And it lived up to all my expectations.”
David Jays
The Merchant of Venice 1936 plays at the Palace Theatre, Westcliff on Sea from Mon 24 - Sat 29 Mar 2025 Tickets: merchantofvenice1936.co.uk
TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM MERCHANTOFVENICE1936.CO.UK
Tracy-Ann Oberman (EastEnders, Doctor Who, Friday Night Dinner) is joined by acclaimed actor Joseph Millson (The Last Kingdom, The Forsyte Saga, RSC Associate Artist) in the critically acclaimed production of The Merchant of Venice 1936, for its strictly limited West End season at the Trafalgar Theatre (28 December – 25 January) and subsequent UK tour in 2025.
Back by popular demand following a sold-out run at the Criterion Theatre earlier this year, Shakespeare’s enduring classic is transported to 1930s East London against a backdrop of political unrest and the Battle of Cable Street.
Millson, whose credits include Netflix’s The Last Kingdom, Marvel’s Moon Knight, and his critically acclaimed performance as Soames in The Forsyte Saga, plays Antonio alongside Tracy-Ann’s Shylock. This smash hit production also welcomes Georgie Fellows as Portia, Evie Hargreaves as Mary / Nerissa, Mikhail Sen as Lorenzo / Maharajah and Elly Roberts as Stefania / Blackshirt. Reprising their roles are Gavin Fowler as Bassanio, Grainne Dromgoole as Jessica, Xavier Starr as Gratiano, and Alex Zur as Yuval / The Duke / Blackshirt.
Tracy-Ann Oberman said: “Having Joe join the cast of MOV36 as the merchant Antonio is the dream. He’s such a wonderful actor with a great Shakespearean pedigree and I’ve always admired his work. He’s not only a great friend but also an actor who I love being on stage with and I cannot wait to see what happens when my Shylock meets his Antonio in the East End of London, 1936.”
After the West End season, this groundbreaking production will embark on a second UK tour for eight weeks visiting: Liverpool, Bath, Leeds, Salford, Fareham, Cardiff, Southend and culminating in Birmingham on 5 April 2025 - allowing audiences all over the UK the opportunity to experience this “deeply relevant” (Daily Telegraph) play.
Ambition, power and political unrest explode onto the stage in this “striking and impactful” (The Guardian) production that “makes theatre history” (Daily Telegraph). This “fascinating and timely” (Daily Mail) production is adapted by Brigid Larmour and Tracy-Ann Oberman.
With the city on the brink of political unrest, fascism sweeping across Europe and Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists threatening a paramilitary march through the Jewish East End, strong-willed single mother Shylock runs a pawnbroking business from her house in Cable Street where Mosley will march. When charismatic, antisemitic aristocrat Antonio comes to her for a loan, a high-stakes deal is struck. Will Shylock take her revenge, and who will pay the ultimate price?
★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★
“Striking” “Galvanising” “Magnetic”
The Guardian Financial Times The Stage
★★★★★
“An astonishing, full-blooded performance.
For anyone who wonders how to produce Shakespeare in the 21st Century, this really is it”
METRO
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE 1936
London: Trafalgar Theatre
28 December - 25 January
Liverpool: Playhouse Theatre
4 - 8 February
Bath: Theatre Royal
10 - 15 February
Leeds: Playhouse Theatre
18 - 22 February
Salford: Lowry
25 February - 1 March
Fareham Live
4 - 8 March
Cardiff: New Theatre
18 - 22 March
Southend: Palace Theatre
24 – 29 March
Birmingham: Repertory Theatre
1 - 5 April
Creative Team:
Director - Brigid Larmour
Associate Director – Tracy-Ann Oberman
Costume and Set Design - Liz Cooke
Lighting Design - Rory Beaton
Sound Design - Sarah Weltman
Composer - Erran Baron Cohen
Movement Directors – Annabel Arden and Leah Hausman
West End
28 December 2024 – 25 January 2025
Trafalgar Theatre, 14 Whitehall, London SW1A 2DY
2024
28 December at 4pm
29 December at 4pm
30 December at 7:30pm
1 January at 7:30pm
2025
Evening performances: 7:30pm Tuesday - Saturday
Matinee performances: 2:30pm Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday
UK Tour
4 February – 5 April 2025
Evening performances: 7:30pm
Fareham, Cardiff, Southend: Monday - Saturday
All other venues: Tuesday - Saturday
Matinee performances: 2:30pm Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday
Website: Merchantofvenice1936.co.uk
X / Twitter: @MOV1936
Facebook and Instagram: @merchantofvenice1936