Actress Tracy-Ann Oberman is used to her work speaking for itself.<\/p>\n
She’s known to many for her roles on Doctor Who<\/strong>, Eastenders <\/strong>and as “Auntie Val” in the Channel 4<\/strong> sitcom Friday Night Dinner.<\/p>\n But at a time when she’s arguably hitting her creative stride, winning critical acclaim in the West End, the actress has also had to deal with death threats – a response to her challenging antisemitism she sees online.<\/p>\n She said: “My identity has never felt a huge part of my creative life, but in recent years, particularly in the arts world, which likes to see itself as progressive and inclusive, I think I’ve ended up becoming a spokesperson for many Jewish people and allies in the arts who have often felt like a lone voice, who have felt intimidated and often felt frightened to talk about their identity. And I don’t think that is right.”<\/p>\n Sky News caught up with Oberman during rehearsals of a new musical based on a BBC radio play she wrote: Bette And Joan And Baby Jane.<\/p>\n It is an imagining of the backstage bitterness between Hollywood legends Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in the 1960s during the making of the film Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?<\/p>\n She said: “I wanted to write something about women getting to 50 and losing their power in the entertainment industry.<\/p>\n “I don’t think we should hurtle towards our forties thinking ‘Oh, you know, where do we stand in the creative industry and in the world?’<\/p>\n “I think we’re coming into a duchess era, I think it’s possible to do anything and I’d like to think I’m giving hope to people for that.”<\/p>\n At this stage in her career, she’s certainly impressing theatre critics with her role in the West End reinvention of Shakespeare’s The Merchant Of Venice.<\/p>\n Read more: Starring as a female Shylock, based, she says, on her own grandmother, the play has been re-set in 1930s London as fascism sweeps across Europe.<\/p>\n In the traditional version, Shylock is a Venetian Jewish moneylender and the play’s principal villain.<\/p>\n “By putting a female shylock at the centre of that it ties in misogyny and racism against all minorities,” she explained.<\/p>\n But while she’s enjoying a creatively fruitful moment in her career, there’s also the threat to her life.<\/p>\n In response, security at the Criterion Theatre has been ramped up.<\/p>\n Oberman said: “You know, we’re living in very febrile times… I don’t understand how we’re living in a time where a Jewish actress who is putting on a production of The Merchant Of Venice is needing to have all this security, it just feels extraordinary.”<\/p>\n Amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war<\/strong> in Gaza<\/strong>, cases of both Islamophobia and antisemitism have spiked.<\/p>\n Oberman thinks her industry hasn’t done enough to challenge it.<\/p>\n She said: “The industry should take note because if it was happening to other minorities, I’d like to think that people would be horrified.”<\/p>\n Bette And Joan And Baby Jane: The Musical is being staged at JW3 on 4 March, with performances at 4pm and 7.30pm.<\/p>\n The Merchant Of Venice 1936 continues its West End run at the Criterion Theatre, London, until 23 March.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n[ad_2]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [ad_1] Actress Tracy-Ann Oberman is used to her work speaking for itself. She’s known to many for her roles on Doctor Who, Eastenders and as “Auntie Val” in the Channel 4 sitcom Friday Night Dinner. But at a time when she’s arguably hitting her creative stride, winning critical acclaim in the West End, the actress …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29935"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"](\"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/03\/768x432\/skynews-oberman-merchant-venice_6477135.jpg?20240303131114\")
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\n Oberman has won critical acclaim for her West End role
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\n Obermann speaks to Sky’s Katie Spencer
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Jewish people ‘terrified to leave homes’ during pro-Palestinian marches
Hate preachers to be blocked from entering the UK<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"](\"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/03\/768x432\/skynews-tracey-ann-oberman_6477392.jpg?20240303154918\")
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\n The actress attends rehearsals of a new musical based on a BBC radio play she wrote
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