By Megan
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqJlHeazfYg
Available until: Indefinitely
I loved this so much! Othello was my first ever
Shakespeare play and I love it and I was really looking forward to this. My
granny gave me a children’s book which was the story of Othello and I
thought it was so sad but so good. I really liked all the characters and I read
it again and again and then my mum bought me the play. It has the play on the
right-hand pages and on the left-hand pages it says what all the difficult
words and phrases mean.
I watched this live because it was my birthday yesterday (I am ten now and that feels much more grown up) and this was my special treat. I wanted to talk to everyone in the chat but it said we had to create a channel and that sounded difficult. But I was so excited about the play I kept forgetting to look at the chat so I think I would have forgotten to say anything. And I might not have been brave enough anyway.
The play has a lot of fights and death scenes which must
have been really hard to organise but it all looked really good (except I
closed my eyes when Othello strangles Desdemona because I always do that).
Janet Lawson did the fight direction this week and it was really clear what was
going on.
TSMGO always does colourblind casting which is really good
but I was wondering if it would be like that for Othello because it is really
important in the story that Othello is black and the other characters who are
important in society are white. Robert Myles the director decided it was
important to show the racism in the play and I’m glad he did that but there are
lots of different characters in the play who aren’t important in society but
who are still really good roles to play so there were still lots of
opportunities for actors from different ethnicities. (I think everyone is
important and equal really but not everyone agrees with me especially not some
of the characters in Othello.)
The cast is really good. They all either played the
characters just how I imagine them or they did something that was better than
what I imagined. Esmonde Cole is really good as Othello. He is so nice at the
start and you can totally see why everyone respects him so much and why
Desdemona married him. But then Iago starts manipulating him and Othello can’t
cope and it’s so sad to see that. Othello thinks his wife and one of his best
friends are dating behind his back and it would be awful if it was true and Mr
Cole shows how hurt and sad Othello is. I’m sure he only does bad things
because he is hurting.
Alex Andlau is my favourite Desdemona ever. I don’t think
Desdemona should be too gentle or behave like Othello’s servant because I don’t
think she would have run away with Othello unless she was a very confident lady
who believes in herself. Ms Andlau gives Desdemona lots of personality and she
stands up for herself in a confident voice but she is still a kind person who
cares about the other characters. Ms Andlau has a beautiful singing voice too
and her performance was really moving.
Dominic Brewer plays Iago and he does so much with the
character. Some people think Iago is just evil but I think there is more to him
than that. He does evil things definitely but he is not being evil for fun, he
does everything for a reason because things have happened which he’s not happy
about. I think villains are more interesting if they have reasons for what they
do. Mr Brewer shows that Iago has lots of different layers. He also makes Iago
seem like a nice man and I think this is important because lots of people trust
him and like him. Even I kind of liked him sometimes and I know what he is
really like! But then even when he’s being nice you get little hints in his
face or his voice. Sometimes it’s like he is trying to keep calm and not show
how jealous he is and sometimes it’s like he’s really happy with how well his
plans are going.
I was so happy when I found out Karim Hadaya was playing
Cassio. The scene with Hubert and Arthur was my favourite part of King John
so I hoped he would do another role with more scenes. Mr Hadaya talked at the
end about Cassio being in the wrong place in the wrong time and I thought that
too. Things keep happening to him. He makes some bad decisions like everyone
does in the play (and in real life) but Mr Hadaya shows that Cassio doesn’t
mean for bad things to happen and he’s sad about it later. I think Cassio is a
bit scared of Bianca. Chi-Chi Onuah makes her into a really clever lady who can
take care of herself.
Elena Pavli is really good as Emilia. She has a really
strong personality and I kept wondering if she’s really totally innocent or if
she’s helping Iago. Sometimes it seemed like she knew more than what she was
saying. Louise Oliver is good at doing the humour as Roderigo but sometimes he
is really serious about everything and she is good at that too. Stephen
Schnetzer plays Brabantio and he made me feel really sad because he is so sad
about Desdemona getting married, he really loves her a lot. I keep thinking
that someone will have to tell him about Desdemona and that makes me really
sad.
I am happy too though because I got to see my favourite
theatre company do my favourite play and it was even more brilliant than I
thought it was going to be.
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