On Monday, BSS issued an apology, admitting “it was an error to present that particular version of the play” and “appropriate context was not provided to students to prepare them.”
“For that, BSS is deeply sorry,” according to an emailed statement from the school. “An internal review is underway to establish guidelines and procedures to ensure this will not happen again.”
The school has “parted ways” with its head Judith Carlisle in the wake of the controversy, citing “an inability to align on a strategy for moving forward for the future.” She is replaced by the deputy head, Angela Terpstra. Carlisle is the school’s 19th head and was appointed last year after BSS hired her away from Oxford High School in England.
Carlisle is currently represented by law firm Henein Hutchison LLP, which released a statement Friday on her behalf. In it, Carlisle states that the play, which was performed at the school for Grade 11 and some Grade 12 students on Oct.17, “draws attention to the enduring and insidious impacts of anti-Semitism in Shakespeare’s time and since then.” She noted it had been previously performed and well-received at Oxford High School, when she worked there.
“I would never deliberately offend students entrusted to my care or their parents,” said Carlisle, who could not be reached for comment Monday. “That was not my intention. I deeply regret that there was not a plan in place to ensure that teachers were fully prepared to engage the students on the play.”
The adaptation by Box Clever Theatre, where Carlisle previously volunteered as a director or “trustee,” is a modern interpretation of the 16th-century dark comedy that incorporates Hitler and the Holocaust. Shakespeare’s classic play has long been critiqued for anti-Semitic elements, particularly its depiction of the character Shylock, a Jewish money lender.
Stagings of The Merchant of Venice regularly provoke controversy, according to Allen MacInnis, artistic director of the Young People’s Theatre in Toronto. He was not involved in the play but watched a public evening performance at the school that was primarily attended by adults.
“Every time a production is done of it, people ask the question of whether it should be done anymore,” he says. “Lots of times, people interpret it in a way to try and make us understand something more of what’s there… but from my experience, it’s almost always failed.”
Box Clever said its adaptation seeks to “challenge hatred in all its manifestations and remind audiences of the dangers and consequences of unchallenged discrimination.” But according to the letter written by 24 BSS parents, dated Oct. 22, the play fell woefully short of this goal and “materially exaggerated the anti-Semitic sentiment of the original version” while minimizing the Holocaust’s impact.
“Many Jewish students whose families were personally affected by the Holocaust were made to feel extremely uncomfortable and alienated as the production encouraged their fellow students to laugh at the horrific events and cheer anti-Semitic chants,” the letter stated.
The parents said they didn’t watch the play but its contents were confirmed and corroborated by “numerous students.”
The letters says they appreciate the “educational value” of controversial and racially charged subject matter. While this adaptation may have intended to provoke discomfort and “meaningful dialogue on the dangers of conformity and mob psychology,” it was presented without any “necessary preamble and debriefing” to “highly impressionable teens.” According to the letter, many students couldn’t understand why the content was hurtful, or failed to recognize misstatements about the Holocaust, and Jewish students were further hurt by their classmates’ comments that the play “was amazing” and “Jewish students are ‘overreacting.’”
“Despite its intentions, without any advanced preparation and the necessary interpretation and perspective provided to young teens, the important message is lost and replaced with the perpetuation of dangerous anti-Semitic stereotypes,” it said.
Journalist Rebecca Eckler, who is Jewish, was “appalled” by reports of the play at BSS, where her daughter is a Grade 10 student. “I was stunned that something could even happen like that,” said Eckler, who has freelanced for the Star in the past. She read accounts of a Grade 11 drama student who participated in the production being instructed to make a nose “as large and offensive as possible” for the play. “In this day and age, how could someone say that?”
Eckler is particularly saddened by reports of the play creating division amongst students. While she believes BSS eventually did the right thing by apologizing and firing its head, she thinks the school can still do more.
On Monday morning, BSS held an assembly to address Carlisle’s firing and apologized to students for not better preparing them for the play. According to Eckler’s daughter, the school announced plans to hold a Holocaust education week in February — but Eckler wonders why this can’t happen sooner, especially in light of the deadly synagogue attack in Pittsburgh that killed 11 worshippers on Saturday.
Eckler won’t be pulling her daughter from BSS, as some friends and acquaintances have urged her to do. But she and her husband have been donors for the past seven years and these recent events have her rethinking her financial support. At BSS, where more than 900 students are enrolled, annual tuition fees for domestic students are as high as $58,000.
Jewish advocacy groups, such as the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWC) and B’nai Brith Canada, have reached out to the school. FSWC offered to run educational sessions on the Holocaust and B’nai Brith said it could provide sensitivity training and education to teachers and administration. Neither offer has so far been accepted.
“We were outraged,” said Avi Benlolo, president and CEO of FSWC, adding that whenever students are taught about literary works that deal with racism or anti-Semitism, “context has to be provided.”
“We’re not in favour of censorship of historical works of art,” said Michael Mostyn, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada, who applauds the school for taking action. “This was not The Merchant of Venice… This (was an) anti-Semitic modern interpretation that was very wrongly brought before students.”
For MacInnis with the Young People’s Theatre, he walked away from the performance at BSS questioning how he would have felt about the play if he were a Jewish person. He also asked himself if he would have programmed this play at his theatre and decided the answer was no. “It feels like one of those things that really had lots of good intentions, but may have really missed the mark,” he said.
Jennifer Yang is a Toronto-based reporter covering identity and inequality. Follow her on Twitter: @jyangstar
Isabel Teotonio is a Toronto-based reporter covering education. Follow her on Twitter: @Izzy74