Habima can be well satisfied with their appearance at the Globe’s Shakespeare festival this week.
The cabal of luvvies such as Richard Wilson and Emma Thompson who wanted the Israeli company barred clearly got nowhere with their boycott call. (Incidentally, none of them was spotted among the ranks of pro-Palestinian protesters outside the Globe).
Habima’s version of The Merchant of Venice attracted largely favourable reviews, even in the Guardian, though Lyn Gardner could not help herself remarking of the final scene of Shylock leaving Venice that “it was impossible not to think of other displaced people, too, most particularly the Palestinians”.
But one spectator who was unable to stay for the whole show was Rafi Addlestone of Kilburn. He was ejected by security not because he tried to disrupt the performance but because he was caught using a Kindle e-reader to follow the plot in English.
Not every guest was treated in the same way, he pointed out. “The Chief Rabbi was on his Kindle and he didn’t get thrown out.”