The actor and several other British theater personalities including playwright Trevor Griffiths, director Jonathan Miller, and actors Emma Thompson and Harriet Walter, have called for Shakespeare's Globe to retract an invitation to Israel's Habima company to perform "The Merchant of Venice" in Hebrew as part of the company's Globe to Globe Festival in May.
The open letter claims Habima has "a shameful record of involvement with illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory." Rylance stated he signed the letter "in support of those artists within Israel who are resisting the requests to play in the illegal settlements...Acting in the illegal settlements seems to me to be an act of provocation and disrespect. Surely peace will only be borne when each person respects the other's boundaries."
Rylance, who won Tonys for his Broadway performances in "Boeing-Boeing" and "Jerusalem," served as artistic director of the Globe from 1995 to 2005 and will appear at the theater this summer in "Twelfth Night" and "Richard III." The Globe has issued a statement that the festival is meant to be a "celebration of languages" not nations and does not intend to withdraw the Habima invitation.
