Chris Kayser plays a Shylock for the ages
July 18, 2008 at 2:41 pm by Curt Holman in A&E
In my story this week about Georgia Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (which I review alongside Essential Theatre’s Valhalla), I praise Chris Kayser’s acting as Shylock, the play’s despised, sadistic moneylender. I wanted to double-down on that commentary by saying not only does Kayser (left) give a great performance in one of Shakespeare’s most problematic parts, it’s probably the best performance of Shylock I’ve ever seen, counting a production at the Shakespeare Tavern, a recent film adaptation and a lecture/performance by a certain starship captain to be.
Like most contemporary adaptations of The Merchant of Venice, including the 2004 Al Pacino film (reviewed here), Georgia Shakespeare’s production puts the “good” characters’ hatred of Shylock, and the Jewish character’s sadistic behavior, in the context of Shakespeare’s time. Anti-Semitism was common in 16th century Venice as well as Shakespeare’s England, and to our eyes, it’s sickening the way characters spit epithets like “devil” — or just spit, period — at Shylock. Demanding an ounce of flesh as collateral for Antonio’s loan, and refusing to accept anything else when Antonio cannot pay, Shylock’s behavior, however reprehensible, comes across as an act of misguided defiance, and a product of his poisonous environment.
Pacino’s portrayal reins in the actor’s trademark showboating (or at least keeps it in abeyance until the big moments), but Keyser’s is the most sensitive I’ve ever seen. His Shylock comes across as so emotionally twisted, he generates sympathy even as he makes hateful, odious statements. His work is remarkably implosive, no more so than when his Venetian rivals outwit him and require him to convert to Christianity — thinking they’re doing him a favor. Director Sabin Epstein makes the tragic interpretation feel consistent with the play’s otherwise sunny comedy.
Sheer chance led to me to an explosive portrayal of Shylock by a future TV and movie star. As a freshman at Vanderbilt University in 1984, I saw some posters on campus for a lecture and performance of Shylock by a English thespian with credits from “I, Claudius” and “Masterpiece Theatre’s” made-for-TV Shakespeare productions. Some friends of mine and I attended on a whim, and the rousing evening that followed emphasized Shylock’s righteous indignation in towering terms. And that esteemed Shakespearean lecturer’s name? Patrick Stewart, who would later become world-famous as my favorite Enterprise captain, Jean-Luc Picard. The funny thing was following Stewart’s B-list film career in the mid-1980s — like seeming him possessed by an alien female vampire in Lifeforce and thinking, “Hey, I saw that guy do Shakespeare.”
But all due respect to Stewart, Kayser’s better.
Photo courtesy of Georgia Shakespeare
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