World Premiere of ‘Everything That Never Happened’ at Boston Court Pasadena

”Everything That Never Happened” draws three-dimensional characters from the stereotypes depicted in “The Merchant of Venice.” – Courtesy photo / Sarah B. Mantell

Boston Court Pasadena presents the world premiere of “Everything That Never Happened” written by Sarah B. Mantell and directed by Jessica Kubzansky, playing from Sept. 27 – Nov. 4. The production stars Leo Marks (Shylock), Erika Soto (Jessica), Paul Culos (Lorenzo) and Dylan Saunders (Gobbo).

“Everything That Never Happened” uses “The Merchant of Venice” as a jumping off point, exposing the realities of Jewish history and drawing three-dimensional characters from the stereotypes depicted in the original Shakespeare play. Mantell’s fresh and time-bending story is rich with humor and heartbreak while bridging the 16th century with today. What do we lose or gain by leaving our own culture? And what sacrifices does love demand of fathers and daughters, lovers and friends? “Everything That Never Happened” is a play about disguise, assimilation, pomegranates, and everything Shakespeare left out.

Playwright Sarah B. Mantell explains in an interview with The Realm, what led her to re-tell this story: “It can feel daunting to take on Shakespeare for any number of reasons. William Shakespeare took a long-existing stereotype and imbued it with just enough empathy that it has lasted generations beyond his death. But it’s still a stereotype. One that has been used as an excuse to harm an entire ethnicity/religion/race/culture of people for a very long time. I wanted to write a play that allowed these characters to speak in Jewish voices for the first time. To give them back their history, their humor, their heartbreak.”

Mantell continues, “The stories we choose to tell and retell have a huge impact on how we see each other in our daily lives. I’m so deeply tired of the free pass we’ve given to the canonical. Shakespeare is brilliant and he is limited. It is possible to love something and also name the way it causes harm. And what is missing from it. I wrote ‘Everything That Never Happened’ to prove to myself that that is true.”

Jessica Kubzansky says, “I fell in love with this play the moment I read it. I’m a passionate Shakespeare lover, and I had done a workshop of ‘The Merchant of Venice’ but found myself wrestling mightily with both the misogyny and the anti-Semitism at the heart of that play. What I instantly fell in love with in Sarah’s play was the opportunity to meet Shylock, Jessica, Lorenzo, and Gobbo as richly three-dimensional human beings, with so much humor, joy, and pain in them all. The complexity at the heart of this story about a young Jewish woman who falls in love with a Christian man and then leaves both her culture and the father she loves behind, moved me unutterably. And, what I revere about this new play is that Sarah is also a poet for the theatre, and her gorgeously vivid, fresh language lights up the world. I couldn’t be more excited to bring this play to fruition.”

“Everything That Never Happened” was developed at the Carlotta Festival of New Plays, Yale School of Drama (2017) and through The Playwrights Realm Writing Fellowship (2017). The play also received first runner-up of the Leah Ryan FEWW Emerging Playwright Prize (2017).

Tickets, priced from $20 – $39, are available at BostonCourtPasadena.org or by calling (626) 683-6801. This world premiere is made possible, in part, through a grant from the Fishman Family Foundation.

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