Gareth Armstrong is one of those actors who can either wear or shed the skin of any character and make the transition extraordinary. He carries an air of quiet dignity and a sly wit that makes one lean forward in one’s chair to focus on his performance. And in Armstrong’s one-man show Shylock, it is impossible to turn your eyes away.
Shylock is entirely Armstrong’s brainchild; he is both its sole writer and star. The Welsh-born member of the Royal Shakespeare Company has performed in numerous theaters as both an actor and director. While playing the infamous character of Shylock in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, Armstrong became fascinated with the complex personality that is also the only major Jewish character in Shakespeare’s canon.
Shylock’s infamous demand for a “pound of flesh,” usually sees him portrayed as a villain, and some critics condemn The Merchant of Venice as being anti-semitic. Armstrong, however, takes the character of Shylock and reveals his character as multifaceted and full of mixed motivations. Armstrong accomplishes this through his portrayal of Tubal, a minor character in The Merchant of Venice, who is a fellow Jew and Shylock’s only friend. Tubal is the personable narrator who Armstrong utilizes as a vehicle to walk through the plot of The Merchant of Venice, the mind of the character of Shylock, the history of Jewish persecution and the portrayal of Shylock through theater.
To achieve such an in-depth and entertaining examination, Armstrong dons a number of personas, from the stern Shylock to the likable Tubal to various drunken Irish actors and bumbling British peasants. The show is a play within a play within a play within a history, as Tubal walks us through both The Merchant of Venice and the past.
Armstrong’s portrayal of Shylock as an outsider, a victim of prejudice and a man betrayed brings the character’s later attempts at vengeance to tragic life. The audience sees Shylock as a legitimate businessman whose faith has him condemned to life in a ghetto, where those who ridicule him have the impudence to ask him for loans. Shylock is a single father and widower whose only daughter runs off with a Gentile and half his fortune, only to squander it.
Shylock’s anguish upon learning that his late wife’s wedding ring was traded for a monkey is piercing; it can easily be understood why he vows vengeance on those who mocked him and whom he suspects of conspiring his daughter’s betrayal.
Shylock is a brilliant play that is all the more phenomenal for its singular performer. Armstrong’s educated blend of history, character evaluation and frank humanity is exceptional. He is well complimented by the minimalist set and subtle lighting changes. The show neither glosses over nor does it dwell on anti-Semitic themes, and its treatment of Shakespeare is loving but reasonable. Armstrong has transformed an oversimplified villain into an intricate and very human individual.

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