The StarPhoenix: Woolf in for a pound

Merchant of Venice kicks off Shakespeare season

By Stephanie McKay, The StarPhoenix July 7, 2010

A decade after finishing his 10-year stint as Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan's artistic director, Henry Woolf is returning to the riverbank. This time as an actor.

It is fitting that Woolf's upcoming starring role is in The Merchant of Venice, a play the veteran actor has a long history with.

"Yes, I was born about 400 years ago," he joked Tuesday at the Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan site.

In actual fact, Woolf's first job as an actor was as Launcelot Gobbo in a 1957 touring production of The Merchant of Venice. More than 50 years later, he returns to the play as its most famous character, Shylock. (Woolf also directed Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan's 1998 production of the play, with Tom Rooney as Shylock.)

Shylock is a man who lusts after the pound of flesh promised as payment on a defaulted loan. When the merchant, Antonio, cannot pay in time, Shylock seeks revenge for constant mistreatment and the theft of his daughter, who has fallen in love with Antonio's friend Lorenzo and converted to Christianity.

The complex role of the Jewish moneylender is one to which the 80-year-old actor feels a personal connection. As a Jew, growing up on the eve of the Second World War, a young Woolf encountered the same unprovoked hatred that Shylock faces in the play.

"At five years old, the first person who ever hit me was the neighbour's daughter. She hit me over the head with a tennis racket. I said 'Why did you do that?' It wasn't that it hurt, it was such a shock. She said 'It's nothing personal. It's because you're Jewish,' " he said. "I was a little boy feeling something of Shylock's rage and helplessness."

While some productions have portrayed Shylock as a pure villain, Woolf sees the character in a more complex light.

"He goes kind of crazy with the constant insults he's endured for years and years," Woolf said.

That being said, Woolf added it's not his goal to make Shylock appear deliberately sympathetic.

"You play him as he is, warts and all. He's not Uncle Cuddles. He'd like to kill Antonio. He despises those fellows as much as they despise him. He's real. Shakespeare doesn't ask for sympathy for him," he said. "People are served up such a lot of tripe on television. It's all laid out for them: Goodies, baddies, cops, robbers, cowboys and rustlers. Life isn't like that. The more real you are, the better."

While The Merchant of Venice has been called anti-Semitic, Woolf said the play is a powerful example of the opposite.

"Jewish communities hate it being done. But actually it is the most marvelously simple, direct and heartfelt statement about race-hatred that's ever been made," Woolf said.

Heavy subject matter aside, Woolf said it feels terrific to be back under the Shakespeare on the Saskatchewn tent. Having taught at the University of Saskatchewan drama department for 14 years, it is no surprise that several of this summer's Shakespeare cast members are Woolf's former students. He even taught current Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan artistic director Mark von Eschen.

"I should be nervous, if I was more intelligent," Woolf said of his performance. "But basic stupidity has helped. I won't really wake up to realize I've opened in Shylock until the week after I've opened in Shylock. I have what you call delayed reaction. 'Hello, where am I? What's going on?' "

Woolf has appeared on stages from New York to London, but his affinity for Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan is clear.

"Saskatoon is such a great place for Shakespeare. When I was artistic director you'd see the taxi drivers reading Hamlet and then come to the show. It's for everyone."

The 26th season of Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan begins tonight with a preview performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor. A preview performance of The Merchant of Venice takes place Thursday.

smckay@sp.canwest.com