Playing Shylock

By: Darryl Reilly

“This isn’t the second half of The Merchant of Venice, and I am not Shylock!” cracks premier character actor Saul Rubinek in playwright Mark Leiren-Young’s hilarious and moving meta stage piece Playing Shylock. For an hour and 45 minutes the 77-year-old Mr. Rubinek dazzles and delights during this clever and poignant autobiographical solo show. The conceit is that we’re at an institutional theater where the company honchos have decided to cancel the run of their production of that Shakespeare play due to social media controversy in mid-run. The press release is made available to the media, one outlet has prematurely released it and so the pusillanimous theater executives scuttle the presentation at intermission, leaving Rubinek to explain the situation to the audience through direct address while in Hasidic-style Jewish garb.

Unforgiven, True Romance, Wall Street, Against All Odds, Frasier, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel are among the distinguished movies and television shows which Rubinek has had key roles in. He began his acting career in 1969 with small parts at Canada’s Stratford Festival, he then moved to New York City where he starved, and then to Los Angeles where he flourished. Playing Shylock is his first time onstage in 35 years in New York City and his first Shakespearean attempt in 40 years. This production debuted in and toured through Canada and makes its New York premiere at Brooklyn’s Polonsky Shakespeare Center. Rubinek is not rusty, his delivery of the famous speech “Hath not a Jew eyes? … If you prick us, do we not bleed?” and his characterizations of the other characters are majestic.

Then there is his engaging seemingly spontaneous standup comedy-style patter. “Doesn’t it bother you that Daphne ended up with Niles?” is a punchline that brings down the house during his recounting of an inane National Public Radio interview. “You look like William Shatner’s dentist” is a withering assessment of Rubinek’s looking “too Jewish” by a talent agent and is bitingly spoken. “Circumcising names” is a bit referring to Jewish performers who Anglicized their names such as Bernard Schwartz to Tony Curtis, Betty Perske to Lauren Bacall, and Jonathan Leibowitz to Jon Stewart. Besides Rubinek’s powerful vocal abilities there is also his swaggering physicality and beaming stage presence which are showcased in this grand vehicle.

Mr. Leiren-Young’s smart script is a swirling amalgam of the background of and furor over The Merchant of Venice, antisemitism, Shakespeare authorship questions, contemporary culture, and Rubinek’s life story. He was born in 1948 in a displaced persons camp near Munich, Germany. His Polish parents survived the Holocaust by being hidden on a farm. The United States’ strict immigration laws prevented the family from settling there, Canada was more hospitable. This would prove tragic for his father as he had been a noted actor in Yiddish theater, there were little opportunities in this field in Canada and so he became a traveling salesman. Playing Shylock is partly a touching tribute to Rubinek’s father.

Director Martin Kinch places Rubinek onstage with precision and visual variance on scenic designer Shawn Kerwin’s striking configuration of vintage wooden furniture, eerie posters, and the outline of a large cross hanging from the ceiling. Ms. Kerwin’s old world Jewish attire for Rubinek is of rich authenticity. Jason Hand’s atmospheric lighting design illuminates Rubinek and the set with moody bright and dim hues. Musical sequences and effects are rendered by Olivia Wheeler’s crisp sound design.

With its humor, emotion, and theatricality, Playing Shylock is an enriching entertainment.

Playing Shylock (through December 7, 2025)
Starvox Entertainment
Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn
For tickets, visit www.playingshylock.com
Running time: one hour and 45 minutes with no intermission