For Julia Nish-Lapidus, co-artistic director of Shakespeare BASH’d, The Merchant of Venice has long preoccupied and challenged her. “As a Jewish artist who primarily focuses on Shakespeare, this is a play that has haunted me,” she explains.
“It has made me feel deeply uncomfortable. And I spent many years avoiding it completely. Then five years ago, I went in the opposite direction and became a bit obsessed. I started re-reading it, examining every line, and trying to understand why it held such a grip on me.” The answer was both simple and complicated: “The language is stunning, and the characters are rich. But the underlying themes are deeply unsettling.”
Now, leaning into this dichotomy with a predominantly Jewish team, she is directing a bold new production of The Merchant of Venice at The Theatre Centre in Toronto from February 13 to 23, 2025.
A lifelong passion
The Merchant of Venice was not Nish-Lapidus’s first Shakespearean obsession. “I always loved theatre and books and words. I was a voracious reader.” she explains. “My parents are avid theatregoers, so they took us to the theatre a lot. And just before I turned 10, my parents took me to my first Shakespeare play—or at least the first one I remember. It was The Merry Wives of Windsor. It was funny and playful, and I was completely enthralled.”
This experience sparked her lifelong engagement with the Bard. “I thought it was so much fun! I loved the poetry of the language, the silliness, the physical comedy, and all of these things. I went home after that play and wanted to start reading it. My parents got a copy of The Merry Wives of Windsor from the library, and I started just going through it. I still have a copy of The Complete Works of Shakespeare that my parents gave me for my 10th birthday.” She laughs, “I was just that much of a nerd! I spent so much time digging into this language that was way beyond me. I couldn’t understand all of it, but there was just something about it that I loved.”
That love blossomed into a career, as co-director – with husband James Wallis – of both Shakespeare BASH’d and St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival. “James and I call Shakespeare ‘bottomless’,” she explains, “because you can continue to dig into it forever. At different times in my life, I keep reconnecting with the same characters, the same words, the same stories. And they have such different impacts depending on where I’m at. A character I understood one way when I was 20 can mean something entirely different to me now.”
The play
The Merchant of Venice follows Bassanio (Cameron Laurie), who is a Venetian nobleman seeking to marry the wealthy heiress Portia (Hallie Seline). To fund his pursuit, he needs to borrow money. Close friend Antonio (Jesse Nerenberg) cannot advance Bassanio any because he has invested his money in ships at sea. However, Antonio offers to guarantee a credit loan from Shylock, who is a Jewish moneylender (Alon Nashman). Shylock, who is resentful of Antonio’s past mistreatment, offers the loan under the condition that if it is not repaid, Antonio must forfeit a pound of his flesh.
Shylock’s daughter Jessica (Cameron Scott), elopes with the Christian Lorenzo (Ori Black), further deepening his resentment. When Antonio’s ships are lost and he cannot repay the loan, Shylock demands his bond – leading to the play’s signature courtroom confrontation, in which Shylock is humiliated and stripped of both his wealth and his Judaism, while the various couples win their happy endings. Rounding out the cast are Sofía Contal as Launcelot Gobbo, Brittany Kay as Nerissa, Adriano Reis as Salerio and Prince of Arragon, Asher Rose as Gratiano, Arielle Zamora as Solanio, Carson Somanlall as Prince of Morocco, and James Wallis as the Duke and Tubal.
The prejudice
The theme of antisemitism is central to the play’s narrative. Shylock is subjected to derogatory language and mistreatment by the Christian characters, with Antonio and others frequently referring to him in dehumanizing terms, such as “the dog Jew.” The infamous “pound of flesh” agreement plays into harmful stereotypes of Jewish greed and vengeance, reflecting historical prejudices. And Antonio’s dismissive attitude toward Shylock’s religious customs, such as his refusal to eat pork, exemplifies the casual intolerance embedded in Venetian society. Finally, the gratuitous forced conversion of Shylock to Christianity at the play’s end manifests the coercive assimilation pressures faced by Jewish communities.
Beyond antisemitism, the play explores broader themes of xenophobia and racial prejudice. The Venice of the play is a society that treats all foreigners and non-Christians with suspicion, enforcing cultural barriers that dictate who belongs and who does not. It’s no surprise that the play’s treatment of these themes has long been a subject of debate. Some interpretations suggest that Shakespeare critiques antisemitism by presenting Shylock as a deeply human character who has been shaped by the hostility he endures. Others argue that the play reinforces harmful stereotypes and so is used to justify prejudice.
Ultimately, The Merchant of Venice provides a lens through which to examine both historical and modern prejudices. And here is where Shakespeare BASH’d, as one of the most considered and thoughtful interpreters of Shakespeare’s works, enters the scene. The production is a deeply personal project for Nish-Lapidus because of her long-gestating and “very complicated relationship with this play”. And her choice is very much to contextualize the play within our prevailing cultural and political climate.
“There are leaders doing really horrific things, and not caring about people, and creating systems that tear people apart,” she states matter-of-factly. So “In this play, we’ve talked a lot about the systems of oppression. Venice in this play is set up to oppress anyone who is not of the ruling class and religion and race, and all of these things”.
And that’s not a problem hermetically sealed into an imagined 16th-century past. “You can’t deny that it’s out there. . . . I think it’s hard to watch this story and not see our world and start to think about how everyone contributes to it.”
The discomfort
After resisting The Merchant of Venice for so long – then deciding to stare down this acute topicality – Nish-Lapidus has found directing the play to be a deeply personal and cathartic process. The reason? The presence of “so many Jewish artists in the room, which is something I’ve never experienced before.” She elaborates, “I’m not a religious person. My Judaism is very cultural, based on the traditions of my family – but it is not a religious thing for me.”
Because of this, she “didn’t think working with so many other Jewish artists would have such an impact. But the discussions we’ve had, the moments of shared understanding, and even the debates—it’s all been eye-opening.” It’s also been deeply uncomfortable – a fact that she asks audiences to sit with, and not try to fix. Instead, she invites them to “join us, embrace the discomfort of this play, these characters, and this story, and see how it impacts you.”
Her objective is clear: “It’s not about presenting a version that makes everyone comfortable. It’s about presenting an honest version.”
The Jewish lens
The production, which features Canadian theatre veteran Alon Nashman as Shylock, centers Jewish voices in a play that has too often been staged without them. “Some of the things we’re using in this play are from my family—my grandparents or great-grandparents”, explains Nish-Lapidus. “We’re really putting our history and culture on the stage, and exploring the play through a Jewish lens.”
But this is far from a simple thing. “It’s still terrifying in every rehearsal. Every day is something new, and the audience will be new. And I don’t know how people will respond.” What she does know is that “it feels incredibly satisfying. It’s a mix of fear, satisfaction, and discomfort. And I think that’s the only way it can be done truthfully.”
She appreciates fully the risks and responsibility that come with staging such a fraught play. “This is a play that a lot of people might say should never be done because on its surface, it says incredibly hateful things—not just about Jewish people. It’s racist; it’s xenophobic. I’ve seen productions that highlighted that, and made me uncomfortable with the play being done.” But her long and uncomfortable relationship with The Merchant of Venice helped her “realize it wasn’t the play: it was the approach to it. Some productions lean into those elements without critique. That’s what I’ve been afraid of.”
For Nish-Lapidus, the only approach is to allow the text to reveal the full complexity of the characters. “If you ignore everything you’ve been told about [Shylock], and go back to what he says and does, Shakespeare gave us a three-dimensional Jewish character. He’s someone trying to make a life for himself and his daughter in a world that isn’t set up to allow them stability or happiness. At a certain point, you can only be beaten down so much.” And the kicker – “If we look at the world today, that story isn’t unfamiliar.”
So in BASH’d style, the play is being presented faithfully. “We’re not rewriting the play,“ Nish-Lapidus reassures. “The text shows Shylock as human and beautiful, but also cruel. All the characters are cruel and beautiful at the same time.” And for her, that’s the key: “balancing both sides and presenting them honestly.”
She’s confident about the approach. “That is the cathartic part—the invigorating part,” she affirms. “Our approach is making sure there are Jewish voices and diverse voices in the room. The actions of the characters are not necessarily the morals of the play.”
And yet. . . “the fear now is: how will people receive it? How will people respond? That vulnerability is scary. I hope it makes the art more exciting and open to connection.”
The conversation
With this production, Nish-Lapidis is aiming to spark conversation, whether in structured talkbacks, or informally after the show, a mainstay of BASH’d productions since their days of performing in bars. “We have a group from U of T coming one night, and we’ve arranged a talkback that night for them and for anyone else who comes. The fun with The Theatre Centre is that the lobby is there, and it’s open after the show. Some of the artists will always come out. James and I will always be there, and we will always be available to chat and to check in with people.”
Ultimately, of course, the audience’s response cannot be predicted. It’s “interesting to ride the wave of that with an audience,” she muses. “We will have real laughter. We will also have uncomfortable laughter. I have found myself in rehearsal laughing at something – and then not liking that I laughed at that thing, or that character, and feeling uncomfortable about that as the scene continues.”
In the end, “that’s what makes it powerful. That complexity.”
And bringing our conversation full circle, “that’s why I keep coming back to Shakespeare.”
The Merchant of Venice runs from February 13 to 23, 2025, at The Theatre Centre, BMO Incubator (1115 Queen Street W). Reserve tickets on www.shakespearebashd.com.
© Arpita Ghosal, Sesaya Arts Magazine, 2025
