Shylock Played By a Woman

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 816, 9 November 1929, Page 26

Shylock Played By a Woman

Lucille La Verne’s Effort Runs Six Nights

Recently in London an. American actress. Lucille La Verne, ventured t.o play Shylock in “The Merchant of Venice,” under her own management. The venture was a dismal failure, and the production was taken off after a run of only six nights.

The dramatic critic of a London journal made the following comment on the production: The first Portia was a boy, so why shouldn’t the latest Shylock be a woman? Alas, whiskers do not make the man! If only they did, (hen Lucille La Verne’s heroic make-up, combined with her authority as an actress, might have overcome the handicap of sex. She has fire and vigour, a commanding voice (high tenor on this occasion, it is true, and rather metallic in timbre), and she can use blank verse as an expressive medium, instead of being bothered by it. But her eyes are women’s eyes; and though they blazed or crinkled, their native mildness betrayed both the grease paint and hirsute artifices of masculinity; and the turn of her cheek is soft. Hej Shylock, however, was Indubitably her own; and at moments, particularly in the Trial Scene, our attention was undivided. The play itself is not one of our favourites; and little in this production, least of all the inexperienced Portia, served to recommend it. The Jessica and Lorenzo of Dorothy Dunkells and Barry Barnes were nice young lovers, and Triston Rawson’s Bassanio was sound. Shakespeare is as Shakespeare’s done; and it was as a new experience that we approached this performance. As a stunt, it must be dismissed.