![]() ![]() The New Place Players’ production of Othello at Casa Clara (218 E. Instead of being a slog to sit through, it’s an excellent tonic for the spirit. Wilson Knight notes in his famous essay, “The Othello Music,” that "the Othello style is diffuse, leisurely, like a meandering river.” That’s precisely the fluidity that this 2½-hour New Place Players’ production achieves. Scrumptious period costumes by Jennifer Paar give the production a multilayered texture, underscoring class lines, status, and more: Othello’s exotic dress and African turban immediately mark him as “other,” in spite of his status as a respected general in Venice.Īlthough the celebrated soldier Othello never engages in an actual sword fight during the play, other characters do, and Aaron McDaniel’s fight choreography convincingly gives the audience a taste of clashing steel. As Iago lurks in the shadows with his gull Roderigo (Nathan Krasner) and informs Brabantio in animal language that his daughter has eloped with the Moor-“I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs”-the dramatic interplay of light and dark underscores the moral struggle going on within Brabantio, and, by extension, in the play at large. Skillful lighting by Ethan Steimel gives familiar scenes an added dimension, as in the first appearance of Brabantio (Matthew Dudley), Desdemona’s father, who’s illuminated as he peers out from his palace’s balcony, wearing an ornate nightgown and cap. Without the trappings of a conventional stage, spectators get to experience the drama at arm’s length from the performers. One might think that the lack of a star would create a vacuum in this Othello. But Desdemona may well be the boldest and most straightforward young female in the canon. Other Shakespearean women have had to choose between father and lover: Juliet, Rosalind, Cressida, and Ophelia. She has Allen make eye contact with audience members, almost as if this child bride hopes to persuade viewers that she is entitled to live her own life, in spite of the social mores of her day that urge a proper Venetian daughter to obey her father. What Masenheimer does with Desdemona (Alanah Allen), though, is remarkable. ![]() (It doesn’t help that the live chamber music sometimes overwhelms the performers’ voices.) Although he’s supposed to be the epitome of a Florentine aristocrat, it wouldn’t tarnish his character’s image if he upped the volume. While Matthew Iannone nails the noble mannerisms and social sophistication of his character Cassio, he speaks the language a tad too softly. Take his conversation with Othello in Act III, in which he hypocritically warns him about jealousy: “Oh, beware, my lord of jealousy! It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock / The meat it feeds on.” Indeed, Hall has the chops for his part, but he could add more force to his conscienceless Iago if he punctuated his speeches with artful insinuation, pauses, and silence. Hall succeeds as Iago when he’s intoning what are arguably some of the best passages in Shakespeare. The actor has a raw fury when questioning Desdemona about the fatal handkerchief, but he needs to bring that same energy to other key scenes. Johnson might do well to put a little more hell in his character and less civility. Yet his Moor comes across as a bit too tame for the military commander who brags that he “hath made the flinty and steel couch of war / My thrice-driven bed of down.” As the philosopher Stanley Cavell observed, the word “hell” is in the middle of Othello’s name. He also has the vocal heft to deliver Shakespeare’s verse through five acts. ![]() But each actor makes an impression.Įliott Johnson, in the eponymous role, certainly looks the part of a warrior. It’s almost always Iago (Conor Andrew Hall) who runs away with the show, but here the whole ensemble delivers the theatrical goods-although some performers can wrap their mouths around the iambic pentameter more efficiently than others. ![]()
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