The Merchant of Venice 1936

Walking around London, one easily sees a lot of ads for plays and musicals in Theatres around the city, more specifically, The West End. Recently, I saw a new play by the name of The Merchant of Venice 1936. I knew the story  but not the whole thing. And yesterday, when I checked the app, I found very good priced tickets and wanted to go to the theatre on the first day of the year, as a nice treat to myself for my hardworking over the last year long.

The Merchant of Venice is actually a play by William Shakespeare, which is believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598 and the location is Venice, the most liberal city state in Europe, in which the Jews were living in Ghettos and had to wear red hats to easily identify them. One of the very few things they could do was to lend money with interest. This play was about that story.

However, the location was not Venice but in East End, London.

On one scene, Shylock says:

This is all about stating the facts and going back to the basics that we all are humans after all.

Knowing the history of the city and what happened on 4 October 1936 would have helped me to better understand the play in the first place. However, I knew some parts of the story. So, I could enjoy. I had no idea about the details shared during the play about a man named Mosley, or Oswald Mosley. He is actually Sir Oswald Mosley, the head of the British Union of Fascists in 1930s.

Let me tell a bit about the Battle of Cable Street:

On 4 October 1936, Mosley and his British Union of Fascists gathered to walk towards the East End, against the Jewish Community in this neighbourhood. According to the London Museum website:

• The BUF aimed to win support there by promoting antisemitism. In 1936, the party planned a march into the heart of the East End. Tens of thousands of people signed a petition to the Home Secretary to ban the march, but he refused.

Again, according to London Museum website,  on Sunday 4 October 1936, 3,000 fascists gathered close to the Tower of London, with 7,000 police as protection.

On Wikipedia, though, the numbers vary quite a lot:

Very large numbers of people took part in the events, in part due to the good weather, but estimates of the numbers of participants vary enormously:

• Estimates of Fascist participants range from 2,000 to 3,000, up to 5,000.^[11][16] The Fascists had a casualty dressing station at their Tower Hill assembly point.^[11]
• There were 6,000–7,000 policemen, including the whole of the Metropolitan Police Mounted Division.^[11][16][15] The police had wireless vans and a spotter plane^[11] sending updates on crowd numbers and movements to Sir Philip Game’s HQ, at Tower Hill.^[15]
• Estimates of the number of anti-fascist counter-demonstrators range from 100,000^[11][17] to 250,000,^[18] 300,000,^[19] 310,000, or more.^[20] The Independent Labour Party and Communists, like the Fascists, set up medical stations to treat their injured.^[11]

The summary of the Battle of Cable Street is that people of East End, London did not allow the fascists to pass.

“They Shall Not Pass!”

They Shall Not Pass

Just like in The Lord of the Rings’ Gandalf,

“You Shall Not Pass!”

And they could not pass indeed. A lot of people, policemen, officers, women and children were injured as a result. The Londoners consisting of communists, catholics, protestants, Jews, some Muslim Somali seamen, Independent Labour Party and many more did not let the fascists pass even when the police were trying to protect the protesters. The way people supported one another and not let the fascists take their friends was a great act of heroism and stand against fascism and racism on behalf of the people of London!

The play reminded me of how welcoming London and its people is. What a great city London is!

That it is a place for everybody.

It is a place for understanding, friendship, being a part of a great mosaic of people all respecting one another and knowing about one another and supporting one another when in need.

I definitely recommend it!