Stereotypes on strings Years ago, Joseph Shragge was reading the news and found an arti- cle about an antisemitic ice sculpture—a bearded man with a hooked nose and a bag of shekels—at a winter festival in his home province of Quebec. It later came to light that the antisemitic image was, in fact, a popular character from Eastern European tradition, and the non-Jewish sculptors didn’t see what the big deal was. That inspired Vertip , a new play by Shragge and Alison Darcy, co-art-
istic directors of the Montreal theatre company Scapegoat Carnivale. In their challenging show, a puppeteer who uses these stereotypical puppets is shocked when Zyhd, his money-grubbing Jewish loan shark puppet, comes to life—and starts demanding money. It’s a different approach to tackling antisemitism, and not one all audiences have been comfortable with. At its core, it asks a fun- damental question: how can we preserve cultural heritage without embracing its problematic elements?
Making a living on a prayer
When Lisa Rubin, artistic and executive director of the Segal Centre for Performing Arts in Mont- real, caught Prayer for the French Republic in New York City last year, she walked out of the theatre certain of one thing: she had to put this show on. She knew it wouldn’t get a long run on Broadway, overshadowed by Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt next door, and few other theatre companies would pick up a three-hour-long drama with a large cast and heavy Jewish content. But for her and the Segal, it was the perfect fit. In this podcast episode, hosts Ilana and David take listeners literally behind the scenes during re- hearsals for this epic Jewish family drama, speaking with Rubin, her actors, subject-matter experts and audience members who caught a sneak peak.
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