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A Meta-theatrical Shylock: The Merchant of Venice at Pargod, New York’s Hebrew Theater (1947)

Sun, December 17, 3:00 to 4:30pm, Marriott Marquis Washington, DC, Chinatown Room

Abstract

Shylock ’47, a production of the Pargod (Curtain) Theatre opened on May 27, 1947 in New York City. Staged entirely in Hebrew, it was a bold and pioneering enterprise that interrogated the moral dilemmas invoked by producing Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust. Shylock ’47 was propelled into being by disparate cultural drives: Jewish post-Holocaust soul-searching, a quest by young American Hebraists for a comprehensive Hebrew-language culture that went beyond the written word, and a lively New York theatrical scene fortified by émigré professionals and energized by young people flocking to theater training programs on the GI Bill.
The playscript, which was never published, was assembled by Peter Frye, the production’s director. In it he juxtaposed segments of Simon Halkin’s Hebrew translation of Shakespeare’s text with dramatized cast discussions about the play’s meaning and relevance to Jews at that particular historical moment. The discussions explored such issues as suitable performance style, Shakespeare’s own attitude toward Jews, the symbolic nature of Shylock, anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, contemporary Jewish identity, and the complexity of self-definition.
In my paper I will discuss and analyze the ideological and artistic impulse that formed this meta-theatrical text and will place it within the agenda of the Pargod Theater itself.

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