Playing Shylock Premieres in Toronto

“90 minutes or so of bracing, transformative theatre.” - The Globe and Mail

Nov 05, 2024

Some people made sourdough during the pandemic. I worked on Playing Shylock - a new play with/for Saul Rubinek that debuted a few nights ago at CanStage in Toronto. For much of that time we worked with Saul’s friend of 50 years or so - Martin Kinch - our director and dramaturge.

This has been one of the wilder rides of my life. Sitting in rehearsals, previews and performances watching Saul perform Shakespeare’s lines from Merchant of Venice has been a thrill. Watching Saul perform my lines… Magic.

Being the “baby” on a production… that has not happened in a while… working with two Canadian theatre legends while they are still on top of their game… Amazing.

My first encounter with Martin Kinch was when I was in my twenties and sent a copy of my script, Blueprints from Space, to one of the University of Victoria professors who defined my life, Juliana Saxton. Juliana read the script and asked permission to send it to a friend to see if it was as good as she thought it was. The friend was Martin Kinch. All I knew about him was that Juliana said he was a pro and that he’d told her to pass on his very positive thoughts on the play… which premiered at Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre not long afterwards. He sent me a letter about Blueprints… I really have to find it.

Saul Rubinek… I met Saul during the pandemic. On Zoom. I’ll tell that story another time. But back in the 1990s when someone was looking to produce my original play, Shylock, in Toronto (and then later as a feature film) and asked for my dream casting for the role I suggested... yep, you guessed it… And as I write this I’m realizing… I’m not sure I ever told this to Saul.

I’ve had a lot of opening nights over a lifetime in the theatre that have ranged from heartbreaking to dream-come-true. But this one wins. Not just because Saul’s performance was pitch-perfect and the show was glitch-free, but because of the friends who were in the audience with/for me.

It was such a gift that my wife, Rayne Benu, my brother, David Young, my cousin and favourite producer on the planet, Tony Wosk, my long-time theatre agent and champion Michael Petrasek and a playwright whose work I am in awe of, Colleen Murphy, were all in the house for opening night… along with the fantastic creative team assembled by Martin… Set & Costume Designer: Shawn Kerwin; Lighting Designer: Steven Hawkins; Sound Designer: Olivia Wheeler; Stage Manager: Neha Ross and the Canstage team - including artistic director Brendan Healey, Executive Director Monica Esteves and producers Laurie Merredew, Laurie Merredew and the wonderful Jordan Laffrenier, the assistant producer at Canstage who wore so many hats for this show. And, there in spirit, our script consultant - my friend and fellow UVic instructor, Rachel Ditor.

And with me for previews… Darron Leiren-Young (who was there for the opening night of the original Shylock and the night Patrick Stewart showed up and raved about that show); Paul Ledoux (who played yenta, introducing me to Saul during lockdown), Canadian theatre champion Nigel Hunt and the actor who starred in the original Shylock almost 100 times in five provinces - John Huston.

I spent over a decade as a theatre critic, writing reviews for The Vancouver Sun, The Georgia Straight, CBC TV and several other national and regional publications. I know how easy it is to pull a word or a line out of context and turn a phrase inside out to score a pull quote so… I wanted to share the Globe and Mail review in full, which is such a thoughtful, beautifully written piece.

I’m also sharing all the other reviews we’ve received so far… with quotes and links.

They all pretty much say what I’d like to… if you’re in Toronto before November 24th, please check out this show. Rayne and I are planning to fly back across the country to see it at least one more time.

And now the reviews and coverage… so far….

Playing Shylock is a ghost story that is impossible to ignore - Globe and Mail - Aisling Murphy - Critic’s Pick

At its heart, Playing Shylock is a ghost story.

When actor Saul Rubinek stammers into the Berkeley Street Theatre, he carries the hollow expression of someone who’s survived something. “Cancelled,” he sputters, staring into the abyss of his phone, dressed in a yarmulke, tzitzit and long coat. Curly payos, or side curls, dust the sides of his face.

“Cancelled,” he repeats, the word carrying new heft.

Immediately, the phantoms come out to play. Mark Leiren-Young’s blistering script imagines a production of The Merchant of Venice cut off at intermission due to concerns of antisemitism from local protestors. Rubinek plays a heightened version of himself, a Jewish actor thrilled to dig into the controversial role of Shylock, to engage with the moneylender’s infamous “pound of flesh.” He’s waited his whole life to play this role, he tells us.

But there won’t be a second half of The Merchant of Venice. The production is a lost cause, a casualty, a spectre. Rubinek’s on his own, a titan of theatre, film and television with nothing left but an empty stage, above which floats a scorched cross (Shawn Kerwin’s set design is thoughtful and sharp).

So, in the absence of Shylock, we get the next best thing: Rubinek. In 90 minutes or so of bracing, transformative theatre, he recalls the pits and peaks of his career, from working at the Toronto Free Theatre (and watching it evolve into the decidedly not-free Canadian Stage) to acting in dozens of roles across screens big and small…

Each story comes back to being Jewish in some way; we learn about Rubinek’s parents, Holocaust survivors, and in particular his father, a Yiddish actor who never got to step into Shakespeare’s iconic role.

Indeed, Playing Shylock is a ghost story. It’s a requiem for the Jews who never got to act on a major stage, but it’s also a remembrance for the Jews who never got to become anything at all. Rubinek lashes out at mediatized phrases like “rising antisemitism” — when was antisemitism not rising in Canada? He recalls his father suggesting he pursue a name change and a nose job; he recreates conversations with Kinch, in which he realized as a young man that he’d never be a leading man at the Stratford Festival; he shares the details of his parents’ survival of the Holocaust.

My maternal grandfather was lucky; he got to be someone. At five feet and a handful of inches tall, with big ears and bushy eyebrows, he looked quite a bit like Rubinek. After growing up in New York City in the 1930s and 1940s, he evolved into a newspaperman-turned-Hollywood executive. He was quiet about his Jewishness, but it was there.

In Playing Shylock, Rubinek jokes that most Hollywood agents are Jewish; “just because it’s a stereotype doesn’t mean it’s not true,” he quips. Another ghost invoked on the stage of the Berkeley Street Theatre, my papa. Another Jew I wish could have lived long enough to soak in the verve of this show.

Intermittently, Rubinek reminds us that this isn’t your standard autobiographical solo show; there’s a frame, this fictional, cancelled production of The Merchant of Venice, this arm’s-length gap between the Rubinek we see onstage and the Rubinek who worked with Leiren-Young and director Martin Kinch to polish Playing Shylock. There’s plausible deniability that the lines Rubinek says are just that, and yet there’s also no doubt that Rubinek feels Playing Shylock to his very core.

And speaking of cancelled productions, it’s impossible to ignore the other ghosts writhing in the ether of Playing Shylock. Earlier this year, a production of Christopher Morris’s The Runner was cancelled by Victoria’s Belfry Theatre due to tensions pertaining to the conflict in Gaza. And in late October, Canadian Stage’s own 1939 found itself at the centre of an uncomfortable scandal — its play about residential schools may not have been written by an Indigenous playwright after all. Playing Shylock doesn’t name either of those shows, but it doesn’t have to; the metatheatrical controversy adds a compelling, crackling layer to Rubinek’s testimony.

Playing Shylock is one of Canadian Stage’s braver programming choices in recent memory, and in a Canada whose synagogues have had to hire ‘round-the-clock armed guards, it’s not unlikely the play will cause a stir. But Leiren-Young’s script anticipates cancellation; in fact, it almost welcomes it. No, Rubinek isn’t playing Shylock at Canadian Stage — he’s doing something far more important.

This play starring Canadian acting legend Saul Rubinek is one of the most provocative and urgent shows of the year

Mark Leiren-Young’s “Playing Shylock” feels strikingly timely amid a series of controversial cancellations across the country.

- Toronto Star, Joshua Chang

“Playing Shylock, Mark Leiren-Young’s provocative solo play at Canadian Stage, offering a searing critique of cancel culture in the arts, could not have arrived at a more urgent moment — as the Canadian cultural landscape is at a crossroads.”

'Playing Shylock' by Mark Leiren-Young - Our Theatre Voice by Joe Szekeres

“A masterclass in theatre practice. The audience is not watching a performance. The audience watches a character emerge and grow before our eyes.”

Canadian Stage’s “Playing Shylock” - A View From the Box - Janine Marley

“There are two rules to theatre: “The show must go on” and “Shit happens.” Playing Shylock, written by Mark Leiren-Young and directed by Martin Kinch, exemplifies these rules with its own unique twists and turns.”