Since most Shakespearean casts are male-heavy (and some are male-only), coverage tends to focus on men who create the work. Let's balance that out! This is #12 in my interview series, Women on Shakespeare. I'm talking with the women who produce and perform Shak and related work in New York.
The Lincoln Center Festival hosts Shakespeare's Globe on another visit to Manhattan. The show's Merchant of Venice, and Rachel Pickup plays Portia to Jonathan Pryce's Shylock. She's an English actress who spent a season with the RSC, and several more years around the UK, before she moved to America. Her shrewd Goneril, plus chemistry with her Regan (Bianca Amato), made her stand out in '14's Lear at Theatre for a New Audience. I emailed with Rachel about the complexities and challenges of Portia.
Thanks for talking with me, Rachel. In rehearsing and playing Portia in London and New York, what
have you discovered about her?
I confess I had never really
thought much about The Merchant of Venice before I came to do
it last year, so my preconception about Portia
was probably the same as many people’s. I
knew she said, “The quality of mercy is not
strained, it droppeth as the gentle rain from
heaven,” so I had assumed she herself was
full of mercy. If I am honest I think I
thought she was pure goodness. Foolish of me, as Shakespeare is never so simplistic, but I
thought she was the romantic lovely princess.
She is not. She has many of those ‘young
lover’ qualities: intelligence, passion,
sometimes compassion, selfishness, (often
selfishness), but also entitlement, confidence
sometimes even bordering on arrogance.
That has surprised me.
But the most fascinating thing has
been how someone [who] is able to say that speech
about mercy can then behave in quite a cruel
way. However you justify the cruelty, she is
nevertheless distinctly lacking in mercy in the
way she treats Shylock and Jessica and two of
her suitors. She is certainly not wholly lovely
in how she behaves, and that has been a
fascinating journey of discovery. I have a
whole other play going on in my head when
myself and Nerissa return from the court scene
to Belmont. But the play ends where it ends so
that sequel is for another time.
What are Portia's finest qualities, and her
worst ones?
She is super-smart
and passionate, and magnificently brave and
strong, and ahead of her time, and she has the
capacity to learn. But she is capable of cruelty,
she is selfish, and, most devastatingly, she is a
racist. She is a complex woman. She is a flawed human being. She is a product of her time, her environment, so alas, she is, frankly, racist. It has been hard to embrace that, but it is important to, especially because of these times that we are living in. It is sadly far too current!
What knots did the
playwright leave for you to untangle?
Do you think an audience gets all that thought you've put in?
Oftentimes an audience won’t even consider these problems. The brilliance of
Shakespeare is the way he forces you to jump
in and just — believe! It is like how we are
when we are children. There is a fairy tale
element to this play — to many of his [plays] — and
so long as we know why we are doing what
we are doing, I think an audience will. Conviction is all!
Merchant addresses religion in volatile ways,
and the show’s effect depends heavily on
Portia’s argument in court. What are your
thoughts on her argument about mercy?
I answered that to some degree in my first
question but to further it. She is of
course utterly brilliant in what she says. What
you realise, when you really listen to the whole
trial scene many times, is that the Doge and
everyone else keeps saying to Shylock, “have
mercy”, “everyone expects mercy”. But it is an
assumption we all make, that a person would
be merciful — nobody actually stops to say
why? Portia is astounded by the fact that
Shylock has to actually ask the question, “On
what compulsion must I [be merciful], tell
me that?” Of course one should not have to
ask, but he does, so she simply answers.
It starts as a simple answer, but Shylock does
not respond nor does he seem convinced, so
she is forced to qualify her initial simple
answer and expand on it. And I think the
shock of having to explain this basic human
concept of mercy allows her to get somewhat
carried away — not entirely, she has her feet
on the ground — but I think during that speech
Portia has a deep, new learning herself. [sic]
What does she learn?
She
grows up somewhat in the mercy speech. She
herself has not always been merciful, she
has not always been kind, she has never been
outside of her cloistered and “golden” palace
of Belmont and has not known the world. Now here she is in the ugly real world of
Venice and it is a coming-of-age.
What
about her ‘winning’ argument about flesh but no blood?
The most brilliant move a lawyer could come
up with - and she does so in the moment — in
our production anyway! It is genius and spot on! I love her for it! I love it!
By contrast, the casket scenes make Portia
silent, but she still controls the situation. How do you animate her silence and formal responses to her suitors?
I just need to listen to the others on stage. Morocco and Aragon, our actors, are so
brilliant and so 'in' it that I don’t need to
think about how I animate anything. I listen
to what they are saying and I react
accordingly, as do Nerissa and Balthazar.
You should never really have to think about
how you are animating a scene if you are
listening — words or no words.
How does she make
her choice (for Bassanio)?
We discussed Bassanio’s and my backstory and decided we had met a few months ago at
one of Belmont’s many balls—we had barely
spoken but we fell in love. Again, there are
fairy tale elements but you can fall in love at
first sight, people do all the time so… it was
not a choice is what I am saying, we were
‘meant to be’! I like to believe in that!
Talking about Shakespeare more
generally, what’s your perspective on
his roles for
women?
There are not enough of them, that is for sure.
He writes many wonderful women though, and I love that for the most part they
are strong. They are often the ones who sort out
the problems, or take the risks. Juliet is way
more interesting than Romeo, Portia is braver
than Bassanio, Rosalind intensely more
fabulous than Orlando, etc. etc. But, obvious to
say, they are often second fiddle to the men.
Where in Shakespeare are the Hamlets, the
Lears, the many Richards or Henry’s or Iagos
for the women? They are just so few and far
between, however wonderful those that are
there are! Having said that, the ones that are brilliant are
truly majestically so, and I feel incredibly
lucky to have played so many of them.
Are there any you don't like?
The
only female semi-leading role that I find a
little limp is Hero in Much Ado. She is a bit
insipid, I am glad I was never offered that
part.
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| Pickup as Goneril opposite Michael Pennington's Lear at Theatre for a New Audience, 2014 |
Interesting, never thought of it in that way?
“salvaging”?!!?
I don’t think so, no — not that I know every
single play intimately, by any means. But he
is so brilliant that even in some of the more
flawed plays there are always moments/speeches that take your breath away. I
think any good director who is excited by any
given play will then do something with it to
make it ‘salvageable’ as you say — or they will
cut any of the dross — not a bad thing to do
sometimes!
I mean anything that can never work onstage, no matter how ironically it's played.
I am not a fan of all the “Poor
Tom” stuff in King Lear — it goes on for far
too long. Many don’t agree with me of
course, but I think it is impossible to sustain
that for quite as long as Shakespeare writes it.
I am afraid I tend to tune out! If I direct Lear, I
will cut a lot of that!
Do you have any particular Shakespearean
roles you’d still love to play? Any dream-roles traditionally played by men?
So many! All the obvious ones and sure — I
always wanted to play Richard the 2nd and
Hamlet and King Lear and Edmund and all
those meaty parts. But as I get older I do tend
to think let the men play the men and the
women the women… perhaps that is very
boring of me. If I were offered King Lear I
would say yes in a heartbeat!
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Shakespeare's Globe and Lincoln Center Festival's The Merchant of Venice runs from July 20 to 24 in Jazz at Lincoln Center. Tickets are $45-150.
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headshot Scott Marshall
photos #2 & 3 Manuel Harlan
photo #4 Carol Rosegg
photos #2 & 3 Manuel Harlan
photo #4 Carol Rosegg
