October 28, 11:00 am

Longtime Beth David member Dr. Ben Kendall had a fascinating experience recently: he played the role of Shylock, the Jewish moneylender in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. The role had been on his “bucket list” for many years, but he never imagined how difficult and lonely an experience it would be to inhabit a character so closely linked to anti-Semitism. Join Ben, together with fellow Beth David members Drs. Deirdre McMahon and Jason Mezey, both English professors, and psychiatrist Dr. David Sachs, for a conversation about the historical, literary and psychological aspects of this unique character and its representation through the years.

Dr. Ben Kendall, a retired physician, has been very active in the local theater scene since his retirement, playing roles including Marley’s Ghost and the Wizard of Oz, among many others. Dr. David Sachs is Clinical Professor Emeritus in Mental Health Sciences at Hahnemann University as well as a Training and Supervisory Analyst at the Philadelphia Center for Psychoanalysis. Dr. Deirdre McMahon, Associate Teaching Professor of English at Drexel University, specializes in 19th-century British literature and culture, often with an eye toward empire, critical race studies and analyses of material culture. Dr. Jason Mezey, Associate Professor of English at Saint Joseph’s University, specializes in Anglophone Indian Fiction, Postcolonial Studies, Contemporary British Fiction, Literature and Psychoanalysis, and Narrative.