{"id":17,"date":"2018-03-11T22:31:45","date_gmt":"2018-03-11T22:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/macmacdaniel.com\/cincinnati-shakespeares-othello\/"},"modified":"2018-03-11T22:31:45","modified_gmt":"2018-03-11T22:31:45","slug":"cincinnati-shakespeares-othello","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/macmacdaniel.com\/cincinnati-shakespeares-othello\/","title":{"rendered":"Cincinnati Shakespeare’s “Othello”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday I flew to Cincinnati to see the Cincinnati Shakespeare production of Othello<\/em><\/a>.I should begin by saying firstly, that I am not a theatre critic by trade, so this shouldn\u2019t be read as a review per se, but more a writeup of my personal and very subjective experience. I should also say, in the interest of full disclosure, that two of my friends were in this show, so feel free to anticipate whatever bias you please. Lastly, I should warn that there will be spoilers about several novel elements of the staging that you should not<\/strong> read if you\u2019re planning to see the show. <\/p>\n

It would be hard to imagine an Othello<\/em> with which I would have been more pleased. Overall the production was tight and exciting, with perfect pacing. The roughly two and a half hour show flew by with me on the edge of my seat for most of that time.I may be in the minority when I say that I think Othello<\/em> is best staged in a modern context. So many important elements of the play will only resonant with a 21st century audience if it is packaged in the trappings of its own time. <\/p>\n

Othello<\/em> is a military play, and for a number of reasons it is easy for a production to fail to keep that military milieu in the forefront of an audience\u2019s mind, not the least of which is the lack of any actual battles. Other military plays \u2014 Coriolanus<\/em>, Henry V<\/em>, &c \u2014 have an easier time of it, given that they include large-scale battles in the action. With the lucky drowning of the Turkish fleet, we never get proof of the famed general\u2019s military prowess, the reason for his success in Venice. Without any actual battles, it can be easy for an audience to forget the martial setting of the play if it isn\u2019t dressed in the recognizable uniforms and customs of the 20th\/21st centuries.<\/p>\n

Cincy Shakes\u2019 production never lets us forget that Othello is a military commander \u2014 he is, however, demoted to the rank of colonel for an extra dose of 21st century military realism. The show opens with Othello and his soldiers on patrol in a vaguely middle-eastern setting, killing a female insurgent crouching on a bed with a rifle. It sets the tone for the military setting and adds a powerful thematic bookend for those who know how the play will end.<\/p>\n

Each Shakespeare play has a few specific notes that, for me personally, define the characters and the action. When those lines\/scenes are cut, or when they\u2019re executed without the proper weight, the play comes loose like an unbalanced lump of clay on a potter\u2019s wheel. When Brabantio and his followers track down Othello shortly after the latter\u2019s marriage to Brabantio’s daughter Desdemona, a brawl nearly breaks out, and Othello stops everyone in their tracks with a single line: \u201ckeep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.\u201d Because there are no battles in Othello, this is the best opportunity to establish early in the play that Othello has a martial presence, the ability to command and control hostile, trigger-happy soldiers in the heat of the moment. If that moment falls flat, then it becomes unrealistic for me to imagine that Othello is so necessary to the success of the Venetian military that the senate would have no choice but to defend him, a black man marrying a rich Venetian\u2019s daughter against his will.<\/p>\n

All of that to say that the scene was played perfectly, with a level of tension and gravity that cemented Othello as the giant he needs to be. Othello talks down the tense crew of soldiers and armed guards with that poetic line, dropped into the gathering like a stun grenade. William Watkins was the Othello that I need, a commander-poet. I am a committed pacifist<\/a>, but Watkins is the kind of general \u2014 or colonel \u2014 that I would storm a battlement beside.<\/p>\n

This was the first show I\u2019ve seen in the Otto M. Budig Theater, which is a phenomenal space, intimate, versatile with amazing acoustics. The production made use of the entire space in interesting ways, with a retractable bed under the stage, effective use of projections, and actors using aisles and balconies to fill out all the corners with action.<\/p>\n

In a production this good, it is equally hard to pick out the highlights as it is to find faults. But if I were forced to name the performances that stood out to me, they would be Desdemona, played by Courtney Lucien, and Iago, played by Nicholas Rose.<\/p>\n

Desdemona is an amazing character that is often underrated through juxtaposition with the more practical, cynical Emilia. As much as I am loath to quote The Smiths<\/a>, Desdemona is the embodiment of their famous lyric \u201cit takes strength to be gentle and kind.\u201d In a jaded, ironic world, we can see Desdemona\u2019s sincerity as naive, and her strength as foolhardiness. As played by Lucien, we see Desdemona not as the helpless damsel in distress caricature, but as bold and fundamentally decent, two things that lead to her destruction by the jealousy of others. Othello kills Desdemona out of jealousy because of her boldness. We assassinate her character because her decency inspires our own jealousy. She enjoys a level of freedom of conscience that we can\u2019t know because we are too selfish, too petty, too aware of our own ugliness.<\/p>\n

What really set Rose\u2019s Iago apart was his interaction with Lucien\u2019s Desdemona. The standard remorseless Iago, who vacillates on stage between gleeful thrill-killer and hollow psychopath, misses a quirk highlighted by AC Bradley, one of \u2014 if not the most \u2014 brilliant and influential Shakespeare scholar in history. In his Shakespearean Tragedy<\/em>, Bradley makes the point that the only person in the play that Iago doesn\u2019t seem to take any true pleasure in hurting is Desdemona. It might be an overstatement to say that Iago has a genuine affection for Desdemona, but he certainly has more pity for her than he does for anyone else in Venice or Cyprus. Rose\u2019s Iago is the most human I\u2019ve ever seen, and when Desdemona asks for Iago\u2019s help understanding Othello\u2019s uncharacteristically jealous behavior, I broke down in my seat, head in my hands crying as Desdemona drapes herself over Iago\u2019s shoulders crying. Rather than a moment of mockery, Iago is legitimately undone by Desdemona\u2019s plight, and when he assures her that \u201call will be well,\u201d Rose twists the knife in our chests by giving everyone in the audience \u2014 even those of us who know the play very well \u2014 a false hope that perhaps the wheels set in motion can be stopped. When Lucien exits the stage, Rose sits down at her dressing table and the silent regret on his face brings the only glimpse of light in that last act, ruined by the intrusion of the gull Roderigo whose threats to expose Iago force him to resume his previous schemes.<\/p>\n

That entire sequence of interactions, from Iago and Desdemona, to Iago alone, to Iago and Roderigo, is the kind of psychological depth in performance that does justice to Shakespeare\u2019s words<\/a>, and gives a modern audience of the kind of suspense and uncertainty that a 17th century audience would\u2019ve felt watching the play for the first time. Combined with what I\u2019ve already said about the contemporary staging, this production could serve as a masterclass in effective Shakespearean theatre.<\/p>\n

It would be impossible to talk about this play without talking about its final minutes, and I will reiterate my earlier warning that there will be spoilers that you should avoid if you\u2019re in Cincinnati and planning to see the show.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n


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