Police secure opening night of London play after Jewish actress receives threats

Police deployed outside a theater in London where a Jewish actress was performing in a new interpretation of a Shakespeare play due to antisemitic threats she received online.

Representatives for Tracy-Ann Oberman asked the Metropolitan Police to step in when “Merchant of Venice 1936” opened last week at the Criterion Theatre in the West End district, a friend of the actress told the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper.

“Tracey is really nervous at the moment like a lot of Jewish people are with the rising tide of antisemitism in this country, with people mixing up their anger at Israeli actions in Gaza with attacks on Jews in this country,” said the friend, who was not named in the report. “She was very grateful to learn that police were outside the theater on the opening night.”

There has been a surge in antisemitism in the UK since October 7, when Palestinian terror group Hamas led a devastating attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel responded with a military campaign to destroy Hamas, remove it from power in the Gaza Strip, and free 253 hostages who were abducted by terrorists during the attack.

Oberman, who has been outspoken against antisemitism, plays the role of Shylock, who in Shakespeare’s original is a greedy Jewish moneylender owed money by a merchant. The play controversially depicts Shylock in a manner considered antisemitic. The new version of the performance is set in the 1930s as fascism sweeps across Europe and into London. Oberman has said she based Shylock on her grandmother, depicting the character as female and heroic, rather than an antagonist.

The play enjoyed a run of performances at the Swan Theater in Stratford before transferring to the theater district of London.

In the wake of the Stratford shows, and following a series of media interviews Oberman gave ahead of the London opening last week, the actress received a torrent of online abuse, the report said.

Friends told the Mail that her representatives contacted Metropolitan Police about her concerns and there was a police presence outside the theater as the play opened. There were no reports of incidents.

On Saturday, Oberman tweeted on X: “Oh my goodness – our @CriTheatre
audiences are making us cry every performance- the reaction and love is beyond everything I’ve ever experienced from a play. This message of tolerance and togetherness is clearly so needed in our Capital right now.”

Last Thursday she retweeted a post from X user Stephen Gilchrist, who went to see the play and lamented the need for the high-profile police protection.

This is what we've come to. The police having to secure a line of theatregoers waiting to get into the Criterion Theatre to see Tracey-Ann Oberman's production of Merchant of Venice for fear of antisemitic violence. suffice to say T-A O is a bloody hero pic.twitter.com/d30HkdThy1

— Stephen Gilchrist ????????????????????️ (@gilchristawake) February 15, 2024

Gilchrist wrote: “This is what we’ve come to. The police having to secure a line of theatregoers waiting to get into the Criterion Theatre to see Tracey-Ann Oberman’s production of Merchant of Venice for fear of antisemitic violence. suffice to say T-A O is a bloody hero.”

Last week a UK Jewish advisory body released a report showing antisemitism sky-rocketed after October 7, making 2023 the worst year for UK antisemitism since 1984 when it first began recording incidents.

The number of antisemitic incidents across the country reached 4,103, more than twice the figure in 2022, amid a surge of threats, hate speech, violence, and damage to Jewish institutions and property, the Community Security Trust said.

The CST, which advises Britain’s estimated 280,000 Jews on security matters, said two-thirds of those incidents occurred on or after October 7.

The CST recorded 266 cases of violent assaults last year, another all-time high, with half occurring in areas with significant Jewish communities, including north London and Manchester in northern England.

Last year, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak granted an extra 3 million pounds ($3.8 million) in funding for the CST, which provides security at Jewish institutions.

London’s Metropolitan Police has pledged stronger action against hate crimes linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict and have made over 400 related arrests as of last month.

The UK government last year also announced £7 million ($8.8 million) in increased funding over the next three years to tackle antisemitism issues in schools and universities.