THURSDAY, JULY 1, 2010 THEATER REVIEW Al Pacino’s moving take on an immovable man by Peter Marks
new york — Does anyone as- sume the posture of immovable maverick more persuasively than Al Pacino? In a line from Serpico to Kevorkian, Pacino has made a career of projecting the essences of men who ferociously stake out causes and dig in their heels. Some element of their in- tensity — whether because of their sense of justice or self- involvement — naturally invig- orates this actor, whose charac- ters never seem more alive than at the moment the world makes them pay for their intransigence. Now he’s at it again, portray- ing one of the stubbornest, most isolated and cruelly treated fig- ures in all of Shakespeare — Shy- lock the moneylender — in the Public Theater’s sterling new staging of “The Merchant of Ven- ice.” Under the stars in Central Park’s Delacorte Theater, direc- tor Daniel Sullivan imagines Venice as a gilded jail, a society defined by circular, concentric cages and the idea that every- thing and everyone in them has a price. It’s a universe of hypocrisy, and no one sees the irony more fully than Pacino’s gritty, hang- dog Shylock, who’s only too hap- py to remind Antonio (Byron Jennings) — the merchant who shows up with hand out- stretched for a loan — that his more usual greeting is to “spit upon my Jewish gabardine.” The notion of a two-faced gentile es- tablishment gets under this Shy- lock’s skin. And it gives a moral weight to Pacino’s fine perform- ance that is sustained all the way through the famous courtroom scene, when the disguised Portia (the wonderful Lily Rabe) out- wits him in his quest to take from Antonio his contractual pound of flesh. Though “The Merchant of
Venice” is frequently categorized by scholars as one of Shake- speare’s comedies, its anti-Se- mitic characters — the way, for instance, the word “Jew” is used by them as an epithet — make it
skull cap that has been taken from him and thrown aside. He touchingly places it back on his soaked head, chastened but not really changed. All, in fact, is ruefulness here.
Portia’s battle with Shylock, waged out of love for Antonio’s friend Bassanio (Hamish Linkla- ter), accords her a hollow victo- ry. She and her lady-in-waiting (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) dis- cover afterward that their mates are not quite the steady custom- ers that they had previously seemed. In Rabe’s distressed countenance the question ap- pears to arise: Why did she both- er? The morning-after doubts are reflected, too, in the air of re- gret enveloping Shylock’s daugh- ter Jessica (Heather Lind), who runs off with a Christian (Bill Heck) and some of her father’s money. In an evening of smooth lead
JOAN MARCUS/PUBLIC THEATER VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
LENDING AN AIR OF TRAGEDY: Al Pacino, right, with Byron Jennings, portrays Shylock in the Public Theater’s production of “The Merchant of Venice” in Central Park.
impossible for us to see how the work can be grouped with “As You Like It.” It does boast some pointed satire in the wooing of moneybags Portia by her effete suitors, required to solve the rid- dle of the gold, silver and lead chests. But we can’t help but think of Shylock’s humiliation, no matter how repugnant his court case, as something other than the stuff of comedy. Sullivan clearly thinks so, too, for while this “Merchant” by no means casts this Shylock as a good man, it offers the most
compelling argument I’ve ever seen for him as neither hero nor villain: just a man driven to the edge by torturous grievance. Pa- cino played the character in a 2004 movie, but the stage por- trayal cuts deeper. It’s this ac- tor’s genius that he can make the demand for a surgical removal of a chunk of Antonio sound al- most reasonable. That Shylock takes a taste for vengeance too far — and that Venice exacts its own excessive justice in return — is his tragedy, as well as the city’s.
To help us see this, the direc- tor has invented a scene, shock- ing in its way: After the judges consult with Antonio on a pun- ishment for Shylock, a conver- sion to Christianity, we are privy in this version to the judgment being carried out. A pool of wa- ter is uncovered on designer Mark Wendland’s superb set of revolving metal bars. Pacino is led into it for his baptism, and the dunking is a violent spasm, as if the attendants want to drown him instead. Dazed, Paci- no gropes in the dark for the
performances, a few other silky ones deserve mention, among them Jean-Baptiste’s ultra-effi- cient Nerissa and Jennings’s sur- prisingly vulnerable Antonio. The production itself glides con- fidently from subplot to subplot, showing us how the various nar- rative developments — the con- test for Portia’s hand, the cam- paign to shore up Bassanio’s debts, the settling of Shylock’s claims — are affairs that reduce human relations to mere trans- actions. In the atmosphere of Sullivan’s poignant “Merchant,” it’s the currency of the heart that becomes ever more devalued.
marksp@washpost.com
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. Directed by Daniel Sullivan. Costumes, Jess Goldstein; lighting, Ken Posner;
composer, Dan Moses Schreier; sound, Acme Sound Partners; fight director, Thomas Schall. With Jesse L. Martin, Nyambi Nyambi, Jesse Tyler Ferguson. About three hours. In repertory with “The Winter’s Tale” through Aug. 1 at Delacorte Theater, Central Park, New York. Tickets are free and distributed daily at 1 p.m. at the theater or through
www.shakespeareinthepark.org.
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Imagination Stage plans new season
by Jane Horwitz
Reprinted from some Wednesday editions
Imagination Stage will start
next season with a reprise of “Bunnicula” (Sept. 25-Oct. 31), adapted by Jon Klein from the book by Deborah and James Howe about a vegetable-juice- sucking bunny, with music by Chris Jeffries and lyrics by Klein. Nick Olcott will direct. The kid-lit antiheroine Junie B.
Jones in “Junie B. in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells!” (Nov. 24-Jan. 9) tries to foil her class’s Secret San- ta gift exchange. The script was adapted from Barbara Park’s book by Allison Gregory. Kathryn Chase Bryer will direct. The musical “Perseus Bayou”
(Feb. 6-March 13) riffs on the Greek myth but takes place in Louisiana after the Civil War. The piece debuted at Theater of the First Amendment nearly 10 years ago. Mary Hall Surface, who’ll also direct, wrote the script. Da- vid Maddox wrote the music. Both Maddox and Surface wrote the lyrics. “George & Martha: Tons of
Fun!” (April 9-May 29) turns James Marshall’s books about hippo pals into a musical. Joan Cushing has adapted the stories and written the music and lyrics. Bryer will direct. Running in rep with “George & Martha” will be Eric Pfeffinger’s “The Day John Henry Came to School” (April 16- May 28), in which a fifth-grader is visited by his folk-hero ancestor. Artistic director Janet Stanford will stage it. The season will end with “The Wind in the Willows” (July 22- Aug. 14, 2011), adapted from Ken- neth Grahame’s classic by Rich- ard Hellesen, with music and lyr- ics by Michael Silversher. Stan- ford will direct.
style@washpost.com Horwitz is a freelance writer.
Abused wife wants out, but her husband wants a second chance CAROLYN HAX
Adapted from a recent online discussion:
Dear Carolyn: If a woman’s husband has been
verbally and emotionally abusive toward her throughout the course of their marriage, and the wife finally becomes fed up and wants to leave, what do you see as her obligation toward him and the marriage, if he says he — now — wants to change his behavior? Is she obligated to give it a
shot, go for counseling, give him another chance because he says he needs her help and feedback in order to change? I don’t want to give it a shot, but he has me thinking I should. I feel as if I’ve given him many chances over the years and he ignored me until faced with the prospect of losing me.
Not a hypothetical question That he is trying to guilt you
into staying is a clear sign that he has not reached the point where you should trust him. You know you can trust someone when you know s/he has your back. And how do you know that? When there is daily, unambiguous proof that this person treats your needs as equal to his own. For example, this person will occasionally do something around the house to give you a break, when you’re fully aware this person could also use a break, too. That’s a small example, but it says big things. It says you have a teammate who is capable of thinking selflessly for the greater good of the partnership.
Of course, big examples can
also say big things. And he could say a lot here by saying to you: “I get it, I have treated you abysmally and unforgivably, and I’m going to do what I need to do to get well. I understand you have to do that, too, and so I’ll support whatever it is you decide to do — stay or go.” That’s someone who has your back. Right know, the only body part he’s looking out for in this marriage is his own butt. Get some outside help from people who have the training and experience to work with
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people in abusive marriages, and do whatever you need to get well.
Dear Carolyn: My husband is [angry] that I
won’t see a marriage counselor. I have asked him for a divorce. I have been unhappy a long time, and have been in individual therapy. I am not in love with him anymore, and the reasons I want out are not external, but those
internal things that add up to a strong distaste as an intimate emotional partner. I still enjoy his friendship. I don’t want him to hold a grudge as we move forward, but I think counseling together would give him false hopes.
D.C.
There’s no question here, but it looks to me as if you’re really facing a choice between
divorcing on your terms (thereby risking that he’ll hold a grudge), or granting him his terms and going to marriage counseling (thereby postponing the escape you’re anxious to make). You might get the quick exit or the friendly exit, but apparently not both. Your husband wants to have some say in something that’s essentially out of his hands. At least acknowledge
where that comes from, even if you don’t bend to it.
Read the whole transcript or join the discussion live at
noon Fridays on www.washingtonpost. com/discussions.
Write to Tell Me About It, Style, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071, or
tellme@washpost.com.
NICK GALIFIANAKIS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
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