Jewish Shakespeare Chicken Stock to Summer Stock
May 21, 2012
The concept of Jewish theatre is funny because Jews get dressed up to go out for only two reasons: (1) to pray or (2) to eat.
And for Jews to get dressed up for theatre, well, you’d have to provide quite a spread, with a portion of the evening being tax-deductible.
Imagine Shakespeare directed by Shalom Alechem.
So, would Shakespeare have been pleased?
Yes, if he wasn’t such an anti-Semite. Question: how many Jewish parents today name their kids Shylock? Case closed.
Where’s this Jewish Shakespearean Renaissance?
North of Toronto lies the sleepy township called Washago.
Recently made famous by the “Toronto 18” (who allegedly used nearby farmland as a terrorist training camp), this cottage-laced snapshot of rural Canada is now the center for the world’s greatest revival of Jewish Shakespearean theatre.
To the untrained eye, this is the last place you’d ever expect to see a Jew to spit on. In fact, one stands a better chance of finding a witch in Washago; a saying put to music by Gordon Lightfoot’s classic song of the same name. F.Y.I. 3 have been caught this year alone.
But unlike the previous group, these Jewish boys want to be caught, sometimes twice on ‘Pay What You Can Sundays’, the equivalent of Shakespearean tzeduca.
“Audiences are left weepy, weary and repentant.”
From the first “a bi gazint” to the last ”shalom alechem”, audiences cannot stop cheering Jewish Shakespeare.
Hamlet (now pronounced Chiamlet) opens with our Danish prince bothered by Muslim unrest due to the royal printing of Islamic cartoons, and along with familial tzuris, now worries about threats on his life.
The Jewish version has so much angst, the “To Be Or Not To Be” soliloquy lasts 45 minutes.
The choice of presenting Julius Caesar is also quite interesting.
Notwithstanding Roman footwear, known to be a very comfortable walking sandal, both cultures were opposed to, well, virtually everything. The fact that every cast member is left miserable enlivens the audience, bringing them to their feet.
I’m of course speaking about the Jewish patrons.
Gentiles can’t figure out why everyone around them are so happy.
Hamlet is haunted by his mother’s ghost, and she’s not even dead yet!
Capturing the behind-the-scene excitement is the companion documentary, ‘Shakespeare Up The Washago’.
The director was inspired by his own journey, one that took him from the banks of London’s Avon River to the banks of Tel Aviv, where he cashed his travelers cheques, bought a movie camera and put himself through rabbinic school.
“I had, at first, a difficult time explaining to the boys that romantic love is something more than how you feel about chicken wings and scotch. But with the right motivation, you can work wonders and that’s how the magic of Jewish theatre is made.”
These are summer productions for the entire family. There are no tasteful nude scenes to worry about. Not even a few tasteless ones.
Summer Season Highlights – Hamlet, Julius Caesar and Yiddish Sonnets written by William Shakespeare and translated by local rabbinic undergraduates.
