Tuesday, March 01, 2022
Royal Court Theatre apologises to Jewish community over character’s name
The Royal Court Theatre has apologised "unreservedly" to the Jewish community for naming a fictional, manipulative billionaire Hershel Fink.
It comes as a report by the theatre's board on Tuesday found that the systems in place were inadequate to identify and correct the issue at the appropriate time.
Anthony Burton, chair of the Royal Court, said: "The Royal Court Theatre apologises unreservedly for the pain that has been caused around the production of its play Rare Earth Mettle.
"This incident fell short of the Royal Court's own high ambitions in terms of inclusivity and anti-racism. It is committed to learning from it and clear actions have been put in place including specialist training on antisemitism.
"The Royal Court must and will become a space in which Jewish artists and other professionals can work without fear of antisemitism, as it always should have been."
The play, by Al Smith, originally featured Hershel Fink as the CEO of an electric car company, who in marketing material was portrayed as a grasping billionaire trying to monopolise the earth's resources.
The theatre apologised and changed the name to Henry Finn after it was accused of perpetuating an offensive stereotype.
Theatre management said they were unaware that Hershel Fink was a Jewish name and called the incident an example of "unconscious bias". But it emerged that concerns were raised about the character's name during a workshop discussion two months previously. Two of the theatre's corporate sponsors later withdrew their financial support after the row.
The inquiry conducted extensive interviews and research. It stated: "Systems should have been in place to ensure that any individual error would not prevent the identification and correction of the issue by the theatre. The artistic leadership recognise and deeply regret this and apologise."
It said the play was developed over an exceptionally long period, largely due to Covid, having been originally commissioned in 2015 but only produced in the spring of 2020 and brought back in November 2021. Fifteen drafts were written.
"The choice of the name Hershel Fink was originally underpinned with explanatory narrative context. This context was ultimately excised during the prolonged editing process," it said, adding that the combination of this and aspects of the character's personality "could be an antisemitic trope".
Actions have been agreed to remedy this, it said, including specialist training on antisemitism and organising more opportunities for staff to interrogate and challenge artistic decisions.
The Royal Court's artistic director Vicky Featherstone told the Jewish Chronicle: "The big learning for me has been about how few Jewish artists have felt that they can be out about their Jewishness with their work at the Royal Court, and in other areas of culture.
"That was an absolute shock and something which feel a huge sense of responsibility to be able to make a shift about and do something about."
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