Richard Topol, Alexandra Silber to Lead Off-Broadway Production of The Merchant of Venice

Igor Golyak’s Arlekin Players Theatre will have an off-Broadway residency at Classic Stage Company this fall, presenting a return engagement of the acclaimed Holocaust drama Our Class and a new staging of The Merchant of Venice.

Our Class, written by Tadeusz Slobodzianek, will run September 12-November 3, with the same cast that premiered the drama earlier this year at Brooklyn Academy of Music: Gus Birney as Dora, Andrey Burkovskiy  as Menachem, José Espinosa as Rysiek, Tess Goldwyn as Zocha, Will Manning s Heniek, Stephen Ochsner as Jakub Katz, Alexandra Silber as Rachelka/Marianna, Richard Topol as Abram, Ilia Volok as Władek and Elan Zafir as Zygmunt.

The Merchant of Venice, running November 22-December 22, stars Topol as Shylock, Silber as Portia, and Birney, Espinosa, Goldwyn, and Ochsner.

Our Class follows ten Polish classmates, five Jewish and five Catholic, growing up as playmates, friends, and neighbors, who then turn on one another with life and death consequences. Featured in the 2024 Under the Radar Festival, it received a Drama League Award nomination for Outstanding Revival of a Play, an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Performer in an Off-Broadway Play (Birney), and a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Projection and Video Design (Eric Dunlap).

The creative team, like the cast, brings together artists from New York and across the world, including scenic designer Jan Pappelbaum of the Schaubheune, сostume designer Anka Lupes, lighting designer Adam Silverman, Oscar-winning composer Anna Drubich, sound designer Ben Williams, projection designer Eric Dunlap, hair and makeup designer Timur Sadykov, and dramaturg Rachel Moss.